Fire protection for agricultural machines – How to protect your business

Why is fire protection for agricultural machinery particularly important?

Fire protection for agricultural machinery is of great importance, as combine harvesters, tractors and the like are prone to fires that spread quickly and are difficult to extinguish. A fire in an agricultural machine can lead not only to significant damage to the machine itself, but also to long downtimes and the associated loss of income. In worse cases, a fire can even result in injury or death. For this reason, it is important to take agricultural machinery fire protection seriously and take appropriate measures to prevent fires. With high-temperature insulation for agricultural machinery, you are on the safe side.

Fire hazards in agriculture

Poor machine maintenance, inadequate safety precautions, and working with old or overheated machinery pose major fire risks. Additionally, crops and straw, fertilizers, and fuels are all highly combustible materials.

One of the most common causes of fires on tractors, combines, etc. is the combination of extremely high temperatures in the engine compartment of the machines and highly flammable residues of combustible materials.

As a result of everyday operation, a highly flammable film forms from the residues of crop particles and operating materials, which is deposited directly on the surfaces of the engine and exhaust tract of agricultural machines and can ignite quickly at high temperatures. Many operating fluids ignite at temperatures as low as 250 °C. However, it is not uncommon for temperatures of up to 1,000 °C to prevail in the engine compartment and exhaust tract of agricultural machinery. Without suitable precautions, this can lead to a dangerous fire or even an explosion.

Oftentimes, a single spark during machine operation is enough to start a fire. And the persistent heat and drought of recent summers also increase the risk of fire enormously. The dry fields favor the spread of a fire in no time.

Fires in agriculture have serious consequences

Fires on agricultural machinery are always associated with high amounts of damage, which in many cases can even threaten the existence of a business. When a fire breaks out in the field, it is usually not only the machine itself that is affected by the damage. The fire often spreads to the surrounding area at lightning speed and threatens the existence of the entire business. Machinery damage and the resulting downtime, crop failure, as well as destroyed stock and, in the worst case, personal injury: all of these can have a serious impact on farmers and employees.

Regardless of the type of operation, the risks posed by machinery fires are great and must therefore be specifically minimized.

How can fire in the field be prevented?

To minimize the risk of fires on agricultural machinery, there are various fire protection measures that can be taken. These include:

1. Insulation systems: High-temperature insulation creates a barrier between combustible components and heat sources. As such, it can either prevent fires from starting altogether or slow their spread tremendously by reducing the heat flow that keeps a resulting fire alive.
2. Fire detection systems: Fire detection systems detect and report fires at an early stage, which allows the operators of the vehicle to leave the vehicle in time and call 911 before the fire gets out of control.
3. Fire extinguishers: To quickly extinguish fires before they can spread. It is important that fire extinguishers be kept near the farm equipment and that all operators know how to use them.
4. Regular maintenance and retrofitting: Through regular maintenance and inspection, thermal hazards can be detected and corrected in a timely manner to minimize the risk of agricultural machinery fires. Timely retrofitting of insulation systems can prevent disasters and also possibly bring discounted insurance premiums.

In addition, safe working practices and careful storage of flammable materials should always be prioritized by all employees, and machinery and equipment should be cleaned regularly.

How to prevent fires before they start: High-temperature insulation for agricultural vehicles

To minimize the risk of fire from the outset, it is essential to insulate agricultural vehicles. To do this, insulation systems are attached directly to the hot components of the agricultural machine, which specifically reduce the surface temperature and radiant heat. This reduction prevents easily flammable particles such as dust or flammable substances such as oil from catching fire. Typically, insulation systems are designed to reduce the surface temperature to below 220 °C, which is a safe temperature for most highly flammable particles and flammable materials.

High-temperature insulation from tmax reduces the surface temperatures in the engine compartments of your machines to a harmless 220 °C, and even down to 60 °C if required, to ensure effective fire protection in the event of a leak or deposit of heat-sensitive substances. This effectively prevents fires in the field and ensures greater safety for people and machinery.

Image: tmax high temperature insulation provide optimal fire protection for your agricultural machine.

Our custom-fit insulation solutions not only minimize the risk of hazards, but also increase the occupational safety and efficiency of your machines, help you meet stringent emissions standards, and provide effective sound and contact protection. 

Fire protection	Fulfillment of exhaust emission standard	Wirkungsgrad steigern	Increase efficiency	Contact protection

Optimum fire protection is also available for older machines

Through regular maintenance and inspection, thermal risks can be detected and corrected in good time to minimize the risk of fires in older agricultural machinery.

With tmax RETROFIT, even older engines can be smoothly retrofitted with effective high-temperature insulation systems to increase fire protection in the field

The all-in-one tmax RETROFIT package offers all services, from needs assessment to installation of the newly developed insulation system, from a single source. Including the creation of 3D data on your engines and cooperation with the engine manufacturer, we bring your fire protection up to date.