What is a Lightning Arrester

A short and simple overview of a lightning arrester for the non-technical

PROTEGO® Flame Arrester Working Principle

Flame arresters are designed to allow the flow of gases, liquids, etc. and to prevent flame transmission.
PROTEGO® Flame Arresters are composed of individual FLAMEFILTER® (flame arrester discs). Several FLAMEFILTER® plus spacers and an enclosing cage form the flame arrester.
The FLAMEFILTER® is made of wound corrugated metal strips. The principle of flame quenching in small gaps is applied in PROTEGO® end-of-line flame arresters and PROTEGO® in-line flame arresters.
When a mixture ignites in a gap between two walls, the flame spreads towards the non-combusted mixture. The expansion in volume of the combusted mixture pre-compresses the noncombusted mixture and accelerates the flame. By heat dissipation in the boundary layer “s”, transferring it to the large surface of the gap-length compared to the gap-width “D” and cooling-down the product below its ignition temperature the flame is extinguished.
The gap width and the gap length of the flame arrester disc determines its extinguishing ability.The narrower and longer the gap, the greater the extinguishing effectiveness. The wider and shorter the gap, the lower the pressure loss. The optimum solution between the two conditions is determined by experiments.

Flame Arrestor Animation

Cashco Flame Arrestors are specifically engineered to match the explosive mixtures Maximum Experimental Safe Gap, in order to ensure complete extinction of the flame.

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