The amount of Water Mist Extinguishing Systems is increasing – however, practical assistance for European manufacturers, installers and operators has up to now not existed. // VdS sup-ports the industry with new guidelines specifically for Water Mist Sprinklers and Extinguishing Systems (VdS 3188).

Water Mist Systems operate with much smaller drops compared to conventional sprinkler systems. This creates a much larger surface of droplets, resulting in enormous cooling as well as other physical effects having a positive impact on the extinguish-ing success. Therefore, the new technology can protect areas which are usually difficult to be protected by sprinkler systems – e.g. his-torical buildings, hospitals, computing rooms and coating facilities.

The difficulty in using this technology lies in the unsatisfactory speci-fications situation in Europe: The CEN TS 14972 has been in a revi-sion phase for years, the application of the American NFPA 750 is not always easy especially in Europe. And the system-specific VdS-Guidelines for planning and installation of these systems refer to the "sprinkler bible" VdS CEA 4001 or to the VdS 2109 for Water Extin-guishing Systems.

Caption 3188: Water Mist Systems approved according to the new VdS 3188 have proven their effectiveness and reliability not only under various labora-tory conditions, but also in 1: 1-scale fire tests.

"As a result of this separation due to historical reasons, some of our customers were faced with a problem because of the increasing number of VdS-Approvals for new Water Mist Systems", explains Stefan Kratzmeir, Head of Market Development at VdS fire protec-tion. "We have responded to the needs of our partners and devel-oped our own guidelines for planning and installation of Water Mist Sprinkler Systems and extinguishing systems."The new VdS 3188 applies to techniques that do not conform to the VdS CEA 4001 or 2109 in their design parameters, use drops with a diameter of less than 1 mm and a system pressure of more than 16 bar.

"To simplify the work processes of our partners, the new VdS 3188 is based on the worldwide proven safety philosophy of our established guidelines, especially with regard to the usual compactness and transparency of VdS-guidelines", Kratzmeir emphasises. "VdS-approved Water Mist Systems have proven their equivalence to sprinkler, drencher or gas extinguishing systems in 1:1 fire tests for many protection areas."

Up to now, VdS used the term "fine water spray" techniques for these systems. In future the standard market synonym "Water Mist" systems will apply. You will find a daily updated overview of these VdS-approved systems on www.vds.de/en and you can obtain the new VdS 3188 in the VdS Webshop: www.vds-shop.de/en