High performance plastic components at the heart of a new extinguisher range

GLORIA®, a major European manufacturer of high-quality fire extinguishers, has launched a new range of cartridge-based fire extinguishers that include new and intuitive semi-automatic charging, alongside established squeeze grip and push button formats. GLORIA is a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).

DCA’s engineers worked closely with GLORIA® applying their suite of engineering analysis tools and the latest glass-filled polyamide technologies, to develop robust headcap assemblies that exceed the rigorous pressure vessel requirements of EN3-8.

“Working with the DCA team has been a pleasure and they have acted as a seamless extension to our own design resources. We have forged a close working relationship and DCA proved to be a very useful source of knowledge and support, with the ability to draw on a range of disciplines which complement our in-house expertise,” said Chris Fergusson, manager, extinguisher - research, development & engineering, UTC Climate, Controls & Security EMEA.

“DCA utilised their in-depth knowledge of plastics technology and processing in combination with their Finite Element and Moldflow analysis skills to enable us to replace safety critical metal extinguisher headcaps with new plastic components”.

“The quality of the design output provided by DCA was exceptional, in particular the manufacturing data pack. We received extremely positive feedback from the moulders to whom we released this data, one supplier claimed it was the most complete and comprehensive data pack they had received in their long experience of working with a range of automotive manufacturers and suppliers,” Fergusson added.