PROTEGO® Flame Arresters

Choose the right Flame Arrester here: Go to Flame Arresters

Working principle of Flame Arresters

Flame arresters are designed to allow the flow of gases, liquids, etc. and to prevent flame transmission.

PROTEGO® Flame Arresters are composed of individual FLAMEFILTER® (flame arrester discs). Several FLAMEFILTER® plus spacers and an enclosing cage form the flame arrester.
The FLAMEFILTER® is made of wound corrugated metal strips. The principle of flame quenching in small gaps is applied in PROTEGO® end-of-line flame arresters and PROTEGO® in-line flame arresters.

When a mixture ignites in a gap between two walls, the flame spreads towards the non-combusted mixture. The expansion in volume of the combusted mixture pre-compresses the noncombusted mixture and accelerates the flame. By heat dissipation in the boundary layer “s”, transferring it to the large surface of the gap-length compared to the gap-width “D” and cooling-down the product below its ignition temperature the flame is extinguished.

The gap width and the gap length of the flame arrester disc determines its extinguishing ability.The narrower and longer the gap, the greater the extinguishing effectiveness. The wider and shorter the gap, the lower the pressure loss. The optimum solution between the two conditions is determined by experiments.

Video "FLAMEFILTER® stops the flame": watch video

Flame Arrester Unit

Extinguishing the flame in the narrow gap (flame quenching) by heat transfer

Combustion Processes

Explosive mixtures can burn in various ways. The following, among other things, can influence the combustion process: the chemical composition of the mixture, possible pressure waves, pre-compression, the geometric shape of the combustion chamber, and the flame propagation speed.

The right device for all applications

Flame arresters are subdivided into different types depending upon the combustion process and the place of installation. Our range of products covers the following:

End-of-line Deflagration Flame Arresters (short time/endurance burning proof) watch video
In-line Deflagration Flame Arresters
In-line Detonation Flame Arresters (stable/unstable detonation)

Special advantages of PROTEGO® Flame Arresters

Modular design allows replacement of single FLAMEFILTER®
Easy maintenance
Low lifecycle cost

Deflagration Flame Arrester, end-of-line

In-line Flame Arrester

Explosion groups

Different gases have different flame propagation capacities and are therefore categorized into explosion groups corresponding to their hazard level. The yardstick for this is the MESG = Maximum Experimental Safe Gap, a characteristic number measured in the laboratory for the flame propagation ability of the product. The MESG or standard gap width is the largest gap width between the two parts of the interior chamber of a test setup which, when the internal gas mixture is ignited and under specified conditions, prevents ignition of the external gas mixture through a 25 mm long gap, for all concentrations of the tested gas or vapour in air. The MESG is a property of the respective gas mixture [EN 1127-1]. NOTE: The test setup and methods are specified in EN 60079-20-1. The most explosive composition is close to the stoichiometric mixture of the gas/vapour-air mixture.

The table shows the categorization of substances into the respective explosion group corresponding to their MESG (IEC 79-1, EN ISO 16852).

PROTEGO® Flame Arresters in an ultra-maintenance-friendly design

This design prevents the FLAMEFILTER® discs from being damaged or misaligned during assembly or maintenance. These PROTEGO® Flame Arresters are particularly suited to applications where more frequent maintenance of the FLAMEFILTER® is required (e.g. where polymerisation or crystallisation result in heavy contamination) or for IIC applications. After installation, PROTEGO® units can be retrofitted at any time.