JELU-Cel­lu­lo­se

JELU - specialized in natural fibres

The Swabian company has gone a long way. Founded in 1908 as grain mill, the family-run company produces many thousands of tons of cellulose for different industries today. After several fires broke out in the past, all endangered areas have been equipped with GreCon spark extinguishing systems for more than 35 years. Mills, transport and suction systems are monitored for sparks and hot particles which are extinguished by fine atomised water fog in case of an alarm.

Risks of fire and explosion

The processing of cellulose holds many risks of fire and explosion

To produce uniform wood chips milling processes carried out by the mills are necessary. These processing steps contain many fire hazards. Fine dust, oxygen and ignition sources in form of sparks or hot particles are mixtures that easily cause a fire. If foreign bodies as stones or nails enter the quickly running crushing mills, flying sparks cannot be avoided. Moved system parts, as e.g. fans, often strike sparks for example due to wear. As a result, a spark is transported through the suction system of the mill into the downstream systems as a preseparator or a filter system where it may cause fire or dust explosions. Also the mill itself is in danger. If the material accumulates, an overheating may result.

Our solution for JELU-Cellulose

Spark detection and extinguishment for the cellulose production

After having installed the first spark extinguishing system at JELU already in 1982, the protection concept was continuously expanded. In 2005, all control stations of the old generation were modernised with the new generation of spark alarm stations.

If a spark or a hot particle is detected, the corresponding area of the system is immediately switched off and the automatic extinguishing is activated.
The mill itself was also equipped with an automatic extinguishing system. If the system is switched off, the mill continues running up to one minute and stirs up dust which is a great danger in connection with oxygen and the ignition source. After a short check, the mill is started again and production can be continued after a minimal interruption.

Besides the highly sensitive spark detectors FM 1/8 for the detection of sparks and hot particles in transport lines, also detectors of the type DLD 1/8 which are insensitive to daylight are used at JELU for the monitoring of systems with daylight incident. Furthermore, also flame detectors are used. They monitor whole areas as the building of the mill from a long distance. 

Technical details of our solution

• 4 control consoles of the CC7000 series
• Highly sensitve FM 1/8 spark detectors
• Highly sensitive detector for the detection of flames
• Overall 50 detection and extinguishing units
• Spark detection under daylight conditions
• Full automatic extinguishing system

Customer statements

“We protect all potentially endangered areas with spark extinguishing systems. We could reduce the fire hazard significantly. GreCon spark extinguishing systems exclude 99 - 99,5 % of all fires in production before a fire breaks out.”

Hubert Ehrler

Head of Engeneering JELU