September 1999
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6 Reads
A survey of ways of preventing engine room fires resulting from fuel, lubricating oil, and hydraulic oil leaking onto hot surfaces in engine rooms showed that all sheathed high pressure injection pipe assemblies should be designed so the sheath is locked into the end fitting at the fuel pump and injector. Any fuel leakage should be monitored by a small alarm tank to give early indication of a problem and allow it to be dealt with before permanent damage has occurred. Where possible, the sheathed pipe assembly should ensure that if there is a failure, the high pressure pipe should fail before the sheath does. Since the majority of HP injection pipes have now been sheathed, the focus is on other sources of fuel spray, such as from leaking low pressure fuel oil systems. Since most diesel engines are now fitted with sheathed fuel injection piping, statistics show that failure of low pressure system piping and fittings continue to contribute to 50% of the fire incidents which have taken place.