Valve on Firefighting Equipment

[divinh]

What kind of valve is it and is that a built-in pressure gauge that's marked by "minutes" instead of PSI or BAR?

 

[tbone1004]

yes and yes.
valve outlet is CGA347, the same type that is on the bank bottles at your dive shop. Gauge is going to read in minutes because that's what firefighters use. Duration is typically calculated at 40lpm/1.4cfm IIRC which is considered "working" consumption rate.

 

[Ben_3]

Yes built in pressure gauge on the cylinders + external pressure gauge often digital or mechanical on the unit. USA and Canada Firefighters work with psi.

For the valves the newer units are going quick connect. Older units are screw ons.

 

[Pat.D]

Up here (Montreal FD) our on-cylinder gauges are marked in PSI (4000psi) as 10, 20, 30, 40. And the SCBA unit has 2 gauges (one dial, one digital in the computer) as well as a 4 LED heads up display inside our mask. Low air (1/3 of a tank) activates a loud whistle.

We're also running with Quick-Connect couplings (native QC on SCBA, threaded to QC adapter on all our cylinders). The QC couplings are a game changer for the Air Truck guys who spend hours swapping tanks on our backs (and when you have to do an emergency bottle change inside a contaminated atmosphere.)

 

[tbone1004]

what's also slick about the QD's is the nipple on the bottle side actually screws onto the CGA346/7 threads so you can make legacy bottles QD adaptable but also use it for filling. One guy puts the adapter on with a small battery powered impact gun, goes in the fill station, comes out and spins it right off. Huge game changer.

 

[Pat.D]

I'm at the office today, here is a close up of the valve:

 

[FF / EMT]

What kind of valve is it and is that a built-in pressure gauge that's marked by "minutes" instead of PSI or BAR?

View attachment 686140

That’s not marked in minutes, it’s marked in psi.
It’s a Scott composite bottle either 45 or 30 minutes.
Looks to be 4500 psi but they also have 2216, 3000, and 5500
In theory a FF is supposed to work using rule of thirds. But you’re also not suppose to use an elevator during a fire and FF’s do all the time…

 

[Sawdust82]

what's also slick about the QD's is the nipple on the bottle side actually screws onto the CGA346/7 threads so you can make legacy bottles QD adaptable but also use it for filling. One guy puts the adapter on with a small battery powered impact gun, goes in the fill station, comes out and spins it right off. Huge game changer.

Can you elaborate on that? Im not following

 

[FF / EMT]

Can you elaborate on that? Im not following

The nipple on the side has a fitting over it with a quick disconnect, that’s for filling from a cascade system or equalizing with another SCBA (such as a RIT bottle or another
FF’s bottle, you can also connect to a tower ladder/ stick if needed.

There’s another connecting point as well between the mask and the pack. Also used for out of air.
And tower / stick ops.

Bottles are rated by Niosh breathing rates which is how they come up with durations,

 

[Pat.D]

filling from a cascade system or equalizing with another SCBA (such as a RIT bottle or another
FF’s bottle, you can also connect to a tower ladder

In Canada workman's safety has banned sharing air with SCBA's so the "donate" quick connect is no longer allowed on our SCBA's. We still have the high pressure bottle fill "receive" and low pressure Quick Connect "receive" fittings but the "donate" fittings have been removed and are only available on the RIT 1hr bottle packs (and of course from static air sources like towers).