| |
Marioff Corporation Oy, which is based in Vantaa, has
achieved the position of market leader as a supplier of fire
extinguishing systems for passenger ships throughout the whole
world, and it also sells similar systems for on-land premises.
The secret of the success is an innovation of Göran Sundholm,
a Finn, that has been the basis for the company's development
of the effective and award-winning HI-FOG water mist extinguishing
technology.
The advantages of high-pressure water mist compared with
other extinguishing methods are continually bringing Marioff
new areas of application. The HI-FOG extinguishing system
has proved to be successful, for example, in protecting machine
rooms, emergency power sources, computer premises, hotels,
office buildings, underground railways and historical buildings
in various parts of the world.
Mist suppresses flames with minimal damage
The effectiveness of water mist is based on the large cooling
surface area and high evaporation rate. A cooling surface
area 400 times the size of that created with traditional sprinkler
systems is achieved with the same volume of water and high
pressure. The output of the HI-FOG system is always designed
so that it is at least as good as with the traditional sprinkler.
The damage caused by the extinguishing water is much smaller
than with the traditional extinguishing methods because of
the small volume of water. This is particularly important
when the premises being protected contain highly expensive
information technology.
Efficient extinguishing also reduces the damage from fire
and smoke. High-pressure water mist fills the premises like
a gas, penetrates latent fires and prevents the danger of
a general conflagration by blocking radiant heat. Fire authorities
have praised the cooling effect of water mist, which makes
the operative extinguishing work and evacuation much easier.
It is important for the environment that only clean water
is used as the extinguishing agent.
Patent-protected technology
Marioff's product development is based on the inventions
and hydraulics expertise of Göran Sundholm, the founder
of the company and chairman of its board. The company's philosophy
is to design the core components in-house at the headquarters
in Vantaa and manufacture them in the company's own engineering
works in Kerava.
The most important inventions have been protected with patents
and design registrations. The company holds or is applying
for more than 1,000 of them. The inventions and applications
are tested and type-approved before being launched on to the
market, for which Marioff has carried out more than 5,000
full-scale fire tests. The result of the long-term work has
achieved a situation in which HI-FOG is the type-approved
system in many types of premises.
In order to be able to carry out its testing activities with
even greater efficiency, Marioff opened a fire test-laboratory
of 3,000 m3 at Lohja. It is fitted with equipment that measures
the temperature, pressure, oxygen content and the size of
a water mist droplet.
|
MARIOFF IN BRIEF
Marioff Corporation Oy, which is based in Vantaa, was
founded in 1985. The company designs and produces extinguishing
systems based on water mist under the product name HI-FOG®.
Exports by the Group's parent company accounted for
more than 95% of the turnover for 2002, which was 64
million euros.
Marioff is the world leader in its field and down the
years has achieved recognition with numerous awards
such the British 'Safety at Sea' prize (1992), the 'Innosuomi
Award' in 1995 and the President of Finland's Export
Award in 1998. The company's founder, Göran Sundholm
received the Finnish Engineering Award for the development
of the HI-FOG technology.
Marioff has companies in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the
USA, Canada and Singapore, which altogether employ more
than 300 people
|
>> www.hi-fog.com
|
|
Feedback about this article.
.
Finnfacts is part of