Since Interschutz 2022 in Hannover, Germany, Finnish Esteri Group’s fully automatic fire hose washing and maintenance unit Hose Master has gathered great attention and interest from the visitors.
With dimensions of 2.5 m x 1.2 m x 2.0 m, it features a soaking tub, compact machine washer, pressure tester, hole detection, drier and coils hose quickly and is fully automatic. All of its key operational innovations reduce energy and water consumption and improve the working environment, which save both directly and indirectly enormous resources of the civil protection department. The machine can wash and pressure test both textile and nitrile rubber hoses, from 25mm to 110mm.
Last autumn Esteri Group launched the mobile version of Hose Master. The mobile unit is an easy-to-move lightweight unit designed for effective hose maintenance in field conditions. In the planning phase, the concept of a clean fire station was taken further to handle hose maintenance already at the site. For instance, Hose Master mobile can be driven directly to wildfire’s service center, so that dirty hoses with harmful particulates and fine sand do not need to be taken back with the firefighting equipment to the fire stations. Instead, the hoses will be cleaned at the spot to avoid secondary exposure to harmful substances. See our Hose Master Mobile video by scanning the QR code on the right.
Images supplied by Author / Contributor
Hose Master Mobile travels easily on road, even for long distances and can be quickly moved from one station to another if necessary. After reaching a destination, even in difficult terrain, it can be set to work immediately and independently under the operation of its operator. Hose Master Mobile can be driven on public roads due to its compactness, this feature has not been seen on the market before.
Hose Master Mobile has its own water recycling system, which includes an advanced filter system with its own 250l clean water tank. Modern sensor technology monitors the process and makes information available to its operator in real time. Use of Hose Master Mobile is both environmentally friendly and economic due to its small consumption of water and power. The small amount of washing water can be also collected and treated somewhere else.
Just like Hose Master, the Hose Master Mobile’s operating costs are quite low due to its high flexibility. The user can customize the process and it can also be remotely customized to specific types of hoses to operate as energy-efficiently as possible.
- Water – The machine can be built so that part of the water is recycled and then optimise its water consumption, which is otherwise already quite small, for instance only less than 4 liters of water is used in the pressurisation of 20m of 42mm hose.
- Electricity – Electricity consumption level is competitive, which has also taken on a more important role due to the current world situation. With variable hoses 38-110 mm, 20-30m long, power consumption is less than 0.15kWh per hose.
- Time – The fully adjustable operating time for the hose gives a strong advantage to the cost policy, which is now quite commendable for the most common hoses at 20 hoses/hour in the hands of an experienced operator. A considerable amount of time is saved for other important activities, and the process only requires one operator.
- Maintenance & repair – The machine is designed to be strong, almost all parts are high quality HST & RST steel (critical parts up to 20mm thickness). All functional parts have been selected according to durability, and quality has not been compromised at any stage. The machine is designed to be as maintenance-free as possible, and with good care it can take years and years of hard use.
Hose Master Mobile future features
Hose Master Mobile latest model (under development) can be equipped with its own solar power plant to further increase energy efficiency, which covers the electricity demand almost entirely depending on the size of the battery capacity.
For more information, go to www.esterigroup.fi
