#MACH2018 Coventry based Kraft & Bauer UK (
www.kraftandbauer.co.uk) will be exhibiting a full demonstration machine on the stand of Advanced Grinding Solutions (Hall 20 Stand 960).
During the show the demo machine will replicate a machine tool fire “on a small and controlled basis”, allowing engineers to see how the fire extinguishing systems react and protect the machine.
Kraft & Bauer says more UK machine tool manufacturers/suppliers are fitting its automatic fire extinguishers as standard, to comply with the latest health and safety regulations.
The company says that under the latest legislation a nominated person must carry out a fire risk assessment and then take whatever action is required — including installing any fire precautions that the assessment recommends.
Anyone not complying with the new regulations faces anything from a fine of £5,000 in a magistrate’s court up to an unlimited fine and/or two years in prison if the case is held in the high court.
Kraft & Bauer sells over 4,000 systems every year and is the largest supplier of dedicated fire prevention systems that are designed specifically for machine tools of all types.
Grinding machine makers were the first to pick up on the latest fire prevention devices as those machines are at more risk than most.
Leading machine makers such as Walter, Reishauer, Rollomatic, Vollmer and Schneeberger all fit K&B equipment as standard; and with increasing numbers of machines being run unmanned for long periods, automated fire protection for machinery is becoming increasingly important.
Kraft & Bauer also suggests that machine tool users should check to see if insurance policies are valid if machines remain unprotected against fire risks.
Louise Boraston, managing director of Kraft & Bauer UK, says: “Most machine fires that we see are on grinding machines that use oil, with the usual cause being operator programming errors that lead to a vast amount of heat being generated in just seconds, resulting in oil vapour within the machine cabinet igniting and causing an explosion.”