Components May Help You Handle An Engine Fire

If you are unfortunate enough to experience an engine fire in your single-engine aircraft, what would you rather have aluminum or stainless steel protecting you from the flames? The team at EPM.AV Corporation makes a very convincing case for the latter, and has manufactured a series of inexpensive Firewall Penetration Seal Kits made from stainless steel.

"Our goal in the development of this line of products is to buy you a little extra time to get the fuel shut off and get back on the ground in the unfortunate event of engine fire," said a spokesman for the company.

According to company vice president Paul Bowmar, the issue of heat protection stemmed from the teams' experience while building an RV6-A. As they assembled the firewall, they questioned the protection offered from the aluminum components supplied to seal the firewall. Windblown avgas, for example, burns at 1800 degrees F; aluminum melts at 1200 degrees F.

To test their theory the team fabricated a duplicate heater bypass valve from stainless steel, which has a melting point of 2200 degrees F. Next, they pointed a propane-fed weed burner, running at around 1875 degrees F, directly at a mock firewall using the stainless steel valve. While the stainless piece glowed red and scaled, it withstood ten minutes at temperatures of 1800 degrees F.

Next, the team mounted an aluminum bypass valve on the mock firewall, and repeated the weed burner test. After just 16 seconds, the flames had melted away the aluminum piece, and flames were shooting through the resulting two-inch hole.

The stainless steel kits are available in three different sizes, to fit a variety of applications.

FMI: www.epm-avcorp.com