POK’s Range Of Portable And Towable Monitors Deployed In Key Installations Globally

In the 1990s, portable monitors had a maximum capacity of 3000 liters per minute. To exceed this flow rate, it was necessary to use towable monitors.

This explains why POK’s construction of towable monitors starts at 3000 liters per minute, which they continue to build and sell, despite the fact that their products allow them to reach flow rates of 5000 and 8000 liters per minute, in very compact and light transportable machines.

Towable monitors

The foldable wheelbase of the towable monitors allow for storage in a pump-ton truck

The foldable wheelbase of the towable monitors allow for storage in a pump-ton truck. The sale of these devices are mainly in China, where Chinese firefighters know how to take advantage of innovations and the advantage offered in terms of flexibility and transport.

On the other hand, the French Fire Brigade seems to consider that towable vehicles offer more stability and safety for untrained staff members, therefore not aware of the risks of a flow rate of 8000 liters per minute pulling horizontally. They may not even have heard of Torricelli. So, with a modern nozzle and a flow rate of 8000 l/m (133 kilograms per second), with a pressure of 7 bars, the reaction force of a straight jet is 400 kg, enough to kill any living being.

Built with a standard frame

POK’s towable monitors are built with a standard frame equipped with an adjustable tiller, stabilizing feet, as well as a jockey wheel. A storage box completes the equipment for transport with a diffuser, water gun, water-foam gun, with or without a tablecloth disperser. Above 5000 liters per minute, depending on the mass to be transported, the chassis is doubled.

In all cases, they are made of groomed and non-slip aluminum alloy sheet. The choice of this type of construction is due to an event that had occurred at the beginning of the 1990s, when POK S.A.S delivered a dozen towable monitors to the Departmental Fire and Rescue Services of Meurthe et Moselle, in the Grand Est region of France.

Avoiding rust caused due to extreme weather conditions

The firefighters had left the towable monitors outside on the Vandoeuvre plateau, all winter in the grip of bad weather, rains, frosts and other conditions. This resulted in rust pitting on the welds of the steel construction, despite five coats of paint.

A team was sent to dismantle the emulsifier tanks, monitors, and chassis and recover the frames that were stripped and repainted with nine coats of paint and then sent back to Vandoeuvre to reassemble. Since this incident, the frames are made of aluminum alloy that doesn’t rust.

POK is buildingtowable monitors with flow rates exceeding 30,000 liters per minute

In present time, POK is building towable monitors with flow rates exceeding 30,000 liters per minute and are currently working on a project for such a machine with a 60,000 liter per minute water-foam gun. These machines are available with or without a foaming tank. At 30.000 liters/min, the machine is equipped with a ballast that holds 1300 liters of water and ensures stability in all positions.

Tractable monitors

Tractable monitors are delivered worldwide, mainly to the fire protection services of tankers that have the appropriate power motor pumps. For a long time, POK’s main customers were Russian oil companies. However, that has changed and now it is mainly the Chinese who procure these monitors, but one can find the company’s products all over the world, including in France.

This is largely because France doesn’t have oil, they have refineries and fuel depots, and oil burns! Kuwait’s oil wells are a proof of this, and the Dalian Oil Depot will remember it for a long time to come. Concerning Kuwait, the French had about thirty oil wells to shut down. POK prepared the equipment, but the administration, instead of sending a team, preferred to subcontract the operation to the Americans.