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Mr. Phuong (right) alongside his son Phan Trong Nghia next to the automatic fire extinguishing machine, ready for installation at the 220kV Huế transformer station – Photo: Dang Nam |
From the thought “how to sleep under gasoline tanks without fearing fire or explosion,” after numerous experiments, Phan Dinh Phuong and his son Phan Trong Nghia (587/1 Hoang Dieu, Da Nang) successfully invented the multi-functional automatic fire extinguisher, An Sinh (An Sinh Fire Extinguisher).
In just 3 seconds, this unique machine can extinguish a fire, far exceeding the international time standards.
Mr. Phuong recalls that at the beginning of 1999, he assigned his eldest son, Phan Trong Nghia, to stay at the My Khe oil depot (Son Tra district, Da Nang) to monitor a gasoline vapor recovery machine (an initiative he was implementing there).
After many days “living” next to the full gasoline tanks, the fear of a fire disaster haunted Nghia, leading him to finally confide in his father.
As an avid inventor, Mr. Phuong listened to his son’s concerns. After weeks of research and reading, he devised an automatic fire extinguishing method using CO2 pressure to spray water and extinguish flames.
After several rounds of persuasion and demonstrations, his CO2 fire extinguishing method was approved for application by the Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Department of Da Nang, the Da Nang Union of Science and Technology, and the Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Department (Ministry of Public Security) at several facilities.
However, this method only produced a jet spray instead of a fine mist. According to Mr. Phuong, spraying a fine mist over a large area would shorten fire extinguishing time due to the fire being deprived of oxygen. This is crucial for fire fighting at power transformer stations as well as in areas containing gas, gasoline, etc.
Thus, further research led to another success. By early 2005, after nearly five years of pursuit, the An Sinh fire extinguisher was optimized.
According to Mr. Phuong, the entire fire suppression system previously used at transformer stations, gas stations, or oil depots operated using electric motor pumps, with some safer places even adding engine-driven pumps.
The time required for this system to activate for fire extinguishing was within 180 seconds (3 minutes), in line with international standards. However, for transformer stations or gas and petrol depots, three minutes is too long, enough for a large fire to develop that is hard to control.
His proposed solution is entirely automatic. When the fire alarm sensors detect a fire signal, they immediately activate (break open). Under the pressure from large CO2 tanks, within just 1-3 seconds, the entire system of water, foam, powder, or CO2 stored in the pipes will automatically spray out in a fine mist surrounding the fire point, simultaneously isolating the fire from the outside. In this way, the flames will be extinguished quickly due to lack of oxygen.
Currently, the An Sinh fire extinguisher has been approved by the Vietnam Electricity Corporation for installation at the 220kV Huế transformer station. It has also been authorized by the Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Department (Ministry of Public Security), approved by the State-level Science and Technology Council for protecting 220-500kV transformers, and received a patent from the Vietnam Intellectual Property Office in 2002.
Notably, this device has been classified as 5A by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). On September 13, 2005, the United States Patent Office rated it as 11A and granted a patent.
DANG NAM
