DE29821951U1 - Device for illuminating a fire hydrant shaft for the fire brigade - Google Patents

Description

Illumination ] ■

Utility model application

Device for lighting a hydrant shaft for the fire brigade Introduction:

The invention relates to a device for illuminating a hydrant shaft, which is intended to make it easier for the fire brigade to draw fire-fighting water from an underground hydrant at night.
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State of the art: "

When a fire is called out, the fire brigade can access the water it needs in three different ways. It carries its water in tank fire engines, uses the ■-dependent fire water supply via above-ground or underground hydrants, or pumps the water it needs from open water (stream, river, pond). To take water from the dependent fire water supply using an underground hydrant, the fire brigade uses a "standpipe" device ( Fig. 1). In addition to the normal equipment (standpipe, hydrant key, Sappi (special axe)), a hand lamp is also required at night in order to quickly set up a fire water supply using an underground hydrant. This hand lamp is used to locate the hydrant sign or the hydrant and to illuminate the hydrant shaft. After the hydrant has been found and the street cap has been opened using the Sappi (special axe), the position of the standpipe seat must be determined using a hand lamp.

The standpipe seat is protected from contamination by a protective cap. To insert the standpipe into the standpipe seat, the protective cap must first be removed. It is attached to the standpipe seat by a cord, or in some hydrants by a chain.

In order to open the hydrant valve using the hydrant socket wrench, you must first be able to see the exact position of the valve spindle. This is again difficult to do due to the poor lighting of the hydrant shaft, which is why the hand lamp is used for illumination here too.

Illumination

Defects:

In order to be able to take water from an underground hydrant at night, the fire brigade needs various tools (standpipe, hydrant key, Sappi). To save time, these tools must be carried simultaneously by the water crew leader from the vehicle to the water extraction point.
All of this equipment is a major hindrance to firefighters at night because of the additional flashlight they need to carry around. If they didn't have to carry the flashlight, it would be much easier for them. Underground hydrants are often difficult to find at night because of their metallic brown street caps and the different beam angles of the various street lamps. Even the hydrant signs (white signs with a red frame) that make it possible to find an underground hydrant are sometimes difficult to see in the dark.

For this reason, firefighters use a flashlight to clearly see the hydrant sign and to locate and illuminate the hydrant shaft. Furthermore, due to the poor lighting, the cord or chain can accidentally wrap around the claw nut holder when the protective cap is removed. If the standpipe Fig. 1 is screwed into the claw nut holder, a watertight seal is no longer possible due to the cord or chain that is now between the seal of the standpipe and the standpipe seat. In most cases, this situation is only recognized after the hydrant valve has been opened. In order to change this state of water leakage between the standpipe seat and the standpipe, the water must be shut off using the hydrant socket wrench. The standpipe is now unscrewed to remove the cord or chain of the protective cap from the claw nut holder. The standpipe can then be put back in place and the water supply set up properly. This requires additional time and can have a detrimental effect on the operation as the standpipe has to be put in place again.

Furthermore, the valve spindle in the hydrant shaft is difficult to see at night. The hydrant valve is opened using the valve spindle and a hydrant socket wrench.

Carrion lighting

Technical task :

The invention is based on the object of replacing the hand lamp with a device (Fig. 2) which can be permanently attached to each standpipe at a later date, thus making it easier to transport the equipment. This also immediately solves the above-mentioned problem of poor illumination of the hydrant shaft without the need for laborious illumination with the hand lamp. In addition, the device (Fig. 2) is intended to illuminate the surroundings and thus enable the underground hydrant or hydrant sign to be found quickly.

Solution to the technical task:

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These objects are solved by the characterizing features of claim 1.

According to the invention, the above-mentioned problem is solved by a device (20) which is subsequently attached between the two B outlets (21) of a standpipe. The device (20) consists of an aluminum plate (1) (front part) and an aluminum plate (2) (rear part). These plates are connected to one another by cross connections (3, 4) and (5) which consist of aluminum round material. Two side parts (6) and (7) are screwed to the aluminum round material. The lighting holders (8) are screwed to the front part (1) and the rear part (2). The light bulbs (9) are inserted into the lighting holders (8). These light bulbs have a downward beam angle and thus enable, among other things, the hydrant shaft to be illuminated. A base plate (10) is now inserted into the device (20), which rests on the aluminum round material (3) and (5). This creates a free space in which the control electronics (17) of the utility model are located. This free space is closed off by an intermediate plate (12). The energy supply by accumulators or batteries (16) is now used. The device is now sealed off watertight by a cover plate (12).
The device, which has two light bulbs, enables the hydrant shaft to be illuminated. The lamps are arranged in such a way that the beam angle is downwards. " ■ '

The bulbs (9) are supplied with voltage by an integrated power source (accumulators 16). Voltage monitoring provides early warning of failure of the

Illumination 4 ' ■

Lighting device is indicated by a beep. The voltage monitoring is active even when the lighting device is not needed and is in the fire engine. This is intended to indicate that the batteries have self-discharged.

The batteries can be recharged at any time without any major effort using a charging circuit (17), which is also located in the device, through an attached charging socket (14) after applying a direct or alternating voltage of e.g. 24 V. The charging process can be monitored by the charging control (13) with an LED. The charging control LED lights up when the charging voltage is applied correctly and thus indicates that the batteries are charging. When the batteries are charged, the charging process is automatically interrupted and the charging control (13) flashes.

The charging circuit now switches to trickle charging. This prevents the battery from being destroyed by possible overcharging.

This charging process can be carried out directly in the fire engine if a charging cable is installed in the equipment compartment. The utility model also makes it possible to replace empty batteries with full commercially available rechargeable batteries or batteries without any major effort.

The utility model Fig. 1 (standpipe + device 20) has a two-stage switch which is fitted internally. This allows a choice between manual operation or automatic operation.
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Fig. 3 shows an example of the schematic structure of the electronic control of the device/lighting system.

In manual mode, the standpipe is removed from the fire engine and the automatic switch-on is activated by pressing the button (15), thereby switching on the light bulbs (9).

In the automatic mode, the utility model must be housed horizontally in the fire engine according to the invention. If the standpipe is now removed and placed in a vertical position, the automatic switch-on is activated and the light bulbs (9) are switched on. , >

Illumination ■'■ " -5 <' . ■ ' ' ' t :· '&ldquor; ■

The standpipe can now be used horizontally to illuminate the surroundings using the attached device (20) and thus to find the hydrant sign or the hydrant. After finding the underground hydrant, the shaft cover is opened, the protective cap is removed and the standpipe is inserted vertically into the standpipe seat. Now all that is left is to open the hydrant valve using the hydrant socket wrench by turning the valve spindle. The integrated automatic switch-off is activated after the standpipe has been brought into the vertical position and switches the light bulbs off after an adjustable time in order to save electricity. The switch-off delay is used to better illuminate the hydrant shaft in order to cover the standpipe seat, the protective cap and the valve spindle. The automatic system is implemented using integrated tilt switches (mercury switches). If necessary, the light bulbs can be switched on again by pressing the button (15). The light bulbs are then automatically switched off again by the switch-off delay.

Advantages: <

Thanks to the additional device/lighting device (20) attached to the standpipe, the hand lamp is no longer required when setting up a standpipe. Finding the underground hydrant and recognizing the hydrant sign is made much easier.

The device (20) saves time when setting the standpipe, because it is no longer necessary to use a flashlight to illuminate the hydrant shaft and the surrounding area in order to locate the hydrant. Transporting the equipment is made easier because the flashlight is no longer needed. Furthermore, if the cord or chain is accidentally placed around the claw nut holder of the standpipe seat, it is immediately recognized and the firefighter can take countermeasures. This avoids having to set the standpipe again.

The valve spindle for opening the hydrant gate valve is also immediately visible thanks to the good illumination of the hydrant shaft. It is now easier to insert the hydrant socket wrench into the valve spindle of the underground hydrant and turn it to release the water. _v

The automatic lighting control is intended to ensure that the firefighter who has to set up the standpipe only has to concentrate on the usual work process as a water crew.

Utility model application reference number: 298 21 951.4

Applicant: Roland Szautner

List of reference symbols Illumination

Device for illuminating a hydrant shaft for the fire brigade

1 Front part 2 Back part

3 Cross connection left

4 Cross connection middle

5 Cross connection right

6 Side panel left 7 Side panel right

8 Lighting shot

9 light bulbs

10 Base plate

11 Intermediate plate 12 Cover plate

13 LED charging control

14 Charging socket

15 buttons

16 Battery

17 Control electronics / battery charging circuit 18 &mdash;

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20 Device / lighting device

21 B-outlets

Claims (7)

Illumination 1 . : . Device for illuminating a hydrant shaft for the fire brigade Protection claims : 1) Device for illuminating a hydrant shaft using light bulbs, characterized in that the light bulbs have a downward beam angle to enable illumination of the hydrant. This device is to be subsequently attached to a standpipe. The integrated control electronics enable the device to be switched on automatically using integrated tilt switches. The device is supplied with power by a rechargeable battery. The rechargeable battery is charged by the integrated automatic charging circuit after a direct or alternating voltage of e.g. 6 V to 30 V is applied via an attached charging socket. 2) Device according to claim 1, characterized in that instead of incandescent lamps high-performance LEDs are used for illumination. 3) Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the rechargeable batteries are replaceable and commercially available batteries can be used instead. This device then has an automatic charging circuit that can distinguish between rechargeable batteries and batteries. This is intended to prevent the batteries from being accidentally charged. > ' , · 4) Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the integrated Tilt switches are arranged so that the standpipe and the device can also be installed vertically in the fire engine. 5) Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the device is not made of aluminium, but of metal, plastic or another suitable material. . ' ■ ■ , 6) Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the device consists of cast iron. 7) Device according to claim 6, characterized in that the device is already integrated during the manufacture of the standpipe. Only the electronic components then have to be installed.