Acetal Couplings & Fittings

[rescue5271]

I hope that they are not going to send out those 34's with the plastic couplings as they will not last long.........

[2468]

You mean the black couplings?

[Zippy]

yeah black..plastic.

Well they are intended to only be used for 5-10 Years tops. (assuming it takes a miracolous 5 years to convert all existing appliances to the new standard).

[2468]

I can guarrantee you that the black plastic will outlast the metal or alloy. lighter, more durable. We use them up here for testing and training, and they get hammered big time. Are the SACFS get the ball bearing version? (spin on alot easier, only need RP7 once a year to lubricate) They were made by a company in the south east... so beats buying couplings made in china or taiwan... support the local businesses

[Zippy]

It seems odd to have a Metal coupling being connected to a Plastic coupling.

My brigade purchased some Storz to SAFB 64mm adaptors, all metal, for both our 14 and 34P appliances to work with a Varley 07/08 34.

[2468]

yeah we thought was a bit odd, but exceeded the metal couplings so we like them. Will be good to see how they go in the SACFS. We purchased the same metal couplings from a company in adelaide and we also bought the acetal (the plastic ones) and we cant tell the difference other than the acetal are lighter and have survived being dropped in a diesel fire... (slipped out of apprentices hand)

[rescue5271]

2468 what are you using the plastic couplings on? and they wont last too long due to sunlight damage and you can not use them on boosting for the same cost of plastic they could have had all metal or brass....

[2468]

Firstly they're not plastic, they're acetal... as strong as metal, and wont fade, i got a set of them sitting on the back of my ute and have been there for over three months. Bill if you in the fire industry you know who sells them as do i... he wouldn't sell them if they werent top quality, we use them to conduct flow tests using a massive trailer pump that can create flows of up to 10k litres a minute... not that there many get pushed that high and they also hold pressures fine perfectly fine up to 3000kpa. we also use them for training through the training  group and they are sold to many sites due to the lighter weight, and durability... metal when dropped get hair cracks, this doesn't we've tested it and scanned it. Brass... thats way too heavy to use and hardly anyone buys them now... only stock left are early 90's.


Not trying to sound holier than thou... but the acetal couplings are excellent, embrace them.

[JC]

They are a great coupling, we use them on our underground truck. There are a heap of national sparks trucks kicking around with them fitted. We got ours from a supplier with the same name a liquid metal...

[rescue5271]

Well if there such a good coupling why is it so that they are not allowed to be used on booster systems in MFS / CFS area's and in the rest of OZ.......

[2468]

We wonder ourselves cause we boost to higher pressures, and to higher flows for longer time and they have never failed. We use them on booster suction, training hose, and we pressure test the hoses quarterly to stupid pressures and they've never failed... and to be honest they're abused cause they get bashed into metal boxes, left in the sun.

You know who the supplier is... go look at them, the SACFS should feel lucky that the cfs isn't just supplying them with the same equipment but looking around for improvements in equipment ie non conductive halligan tools, acetal couplings, improvement PPE.

The other to put this is... we in my company have the authority to buy what ever we want in respects to equipment. Acetal isn't the cheapest, but we still buy it, hell i got a pallet load of it in front of me at the moment. It isn't cheap chinese crap, its made in south Australia.

Moderators i know i ain't suppose to do this but for the benefit of a south Australian company and the people on here... http://www.hydroflo.com.au/products/fittings.html And Bill they're right down the road from you... go to talk to him and see why we like them so much.

Like most new things they take awhile for people to stop being afraid of them. The SAMFS are looking at fazing in a few on trucks for evaluation and with the SACFS getting the adaptors from storz to safb its gonna become a staple on the truck...

[Mike]

Providing information is fine in this context.
Just dont try and sell them

[2468]

Nah just defending something that deserved defending. Cheers mate

[rescue5271]

I do know the company very well and i have spent sometime there before the owner passed away...