Now that you have practiced and mastered the making of Basic CAF, it’s time for the Next Step, prior to moving on to Advanced CAF topics.
Let’s talk about the CAFS (System), what it is made of and what the parts are doing as you operate the system.
CAFS are often times considered complicated and maintenance nightmares. NOT REALLY!!! One just has to understand that it is a machine comprising of 3 separate systems working together. Amazingly, one system adds water (the fire pump), the 2nd system adds the soap (detergent) (the foam concentrate proportioning System) and the 3rd adds the compressed air (the compressor system).
Sound familiar? Water + Soap (detergent) + Compressed Air + Agitation = CAF.
CAFS are very durable systems and can outlast one or more firefighters’ career(s). However, an operator not fully understanding the system can destroy the system in as little as 30 seconds – not something we want to do!!! So let’s spend time learning and understanding the machine.
Understanding the 3 systems makes it easy for the CAFS operator to recognize what the system is doing and allows the operator to intervene to protect both the firefighters and the machine in case of a machine malfunction. It also provides the operator with the necessary knowledge to prevent malfunction by operator error.
It is necessary to break down and understand each of the 3 system.
{add photos}
Fire Pump – fire pumps have been around since the invention of the motorized fire apparatus. It was steam and hand pumping prior to that. CAF does nothing to change the operation of the fire pump. It is not the intent of this site to go into details on fire pumps. – No subpage is required here!
Foam Concentrate System – (Proportioner or Soap/Detergent Pump) – (These systems and their operations are discussed in detail at AFoam.org –{Link}
{POTENTIAL SUBPAGES}
Compressor System – includes the air circuit (allows water/air pressures to match, allows for other uses of the air) air inlet, air oil separator etc. {Need more}
- Compressor Sub-System – The Hydraulic Cooling – sump, filter, heat exchanger, separator filter, cooling line clean out etc.
Components/What do they Do!! – {If not discussed in the pages above}
Monitoring the Operations – The Operator’s Tasks/Responsibilities
What to Do in a Failure
Operator Failures – no cooling water, no oil, high temperature
{Could add different type of systems here, or put that elsewhere ie. under Design in Admin or in Adv Topics}
Once you are totally familiar and knowledgeable with the system components and how the system works – (including all the System Subpages) it is time to move on to the next step – CAF Advanced Topics!! {link}
{Maybe a quiz here!!}
