MacGREGOR adds fire-extinguishing systems to its portfolio

The MacGREGOR Group has signed a contract with Finnish fire safety specialist Softonex to become the exclusive distributor and service provider for Softonex?s fire-extinguishing systems in marine sector. The contract covers global sales of fire-extinguishing systems to newbuildings and conversions, with the exception of Japan and Thailand, and a worldwide service agreement. Softonex will continue to market and sell products to land-based applications.

The products will be marketed and sold under the SoftEx brand name by MacGREGOR while Softonex focuses on product development and the supply of goods. The SoftEx water mist fire-extinguishing system has a number of advantages over traditional installations in that it is a low-pressure system (about 4 bar at the nozzle) and is crew friendly. It is also easy to install and there is no need for strengthening behind the nozzle, so it can be directly mounted to the wall or ceiling panel. It is claimed that the system uses about 80% less water than a traditional sprinkler system which is achieved by adding small amount of fire-extinguishing additive to the water to reduce the water droplet size to a fine mist (100µm – 600µm). These cool the fire gases very quickly, therefore limiting the damage and reducing the spread of a fire.