CAF Facts – ACAF Systems Inc.

What people are saying about Compressed Air Foam (CAF)

U.S. Fire Administration

Hoses are Easier to Handle

The U.S. Fire Administration conducted a series of studies and test fires and found that a CAF hose line is significantly lighter and easier to handle than a conventional water line. This is because the foam in the hose is mostly air.

Salem, Connecticut

Knocksdown Fire Faster than Water

A test by Salem, Connecticut showed that CAF is 480% faster at cooling than plain water when applied at the same rate. The CAF stream has a 33% greater reach than water or Class A foam, increasing firefighter safety.

National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC)

Better than Water

National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho, showed that 90% of water used on test fires failed to extinguish because the water did not penetrate the fire. Another study found that in the state of Oregon, 75 cents of every dollar paid in fire claims was the result of water damage.

LastFire

Lower Application Rates

It is confirmed that the combination of good CAF foam using a good Fluorine Free Foam concentrate provides levels of fire protection equivalent to or better than the levels from a conventional foam application at lower application rates.

Flourine-free, Compressed Air Foam

Compressed air foam is a major advancement in foam technology that has changed the way fire protection engineers deal with flammable liquid fire hazards. ACAF technology provides a tested and trusted delivery system with highly enhanced fire extinguishing performance characteristics. Our FM Approved systems using RE-HEALING ™ RF3 Foam offer state of the art, environmentally sustainable fire suppression solutions.

A survey of six Fire Departments

Average reduction in water usage ranging from 26% to 35%.
Property loss reductions between 16% to 25%; one department reported 36%!
All six departments responded that they would purchase a CAF system again and wished that the purchase had been made sooner.
The CAF system improved firefighter safety, and resulted in faster knockdown.

About our Fluorine-Free Foam

ACAF Fire Suppression Systems is FM Approved with Fluorine-free Foam.

ACAF was the first Fluorine-Free CAF Fire Suppression System to be FM Approved. Both the self-contained and fixed water fire suppression systems are Factory Mutual (FM) Approved with RE-HEALING ™ RF3 Foam from Solberg. The approval of these combined products was the first Fluorine-free, FM Approved, system in the special hazards fire suppression industry. RE-HEALING Foam Concentrates, known as “The Authentic Fluoro-Free Foam”, are an innovative environmentally sustainable fluoro-surfactant and fluoropolymer-free foam used to effectively extinguish Class B fuels with no environmental concerns for persistence, bioaccumulation or toxic breakdown. SOLBERG RE-HEALING foam concentrates are formulated using a tested and approved high performance synthetic foam technology to replace traditional AFFF foam concentrates and older fluoro-protein foams.

The FM Approval covers all of ACAF’s self-contained and fixed water systems as called out in FM Approval class 5136; Approval Identification 3047965.