tunnelbuilder.com - Marioff company profile

Marioff designs, manufactures and installs innovative HI-FOG water mist fire protection systems for the marine, offshore, and land markets and undertakes manufacturing from one of Finland's leading fine mechanical machining workshops. The water mist fire protection systems have been strongly developed for the last 15 years. These systems have proven their high efficiency against different kind of fires in terms of cooling, radiant heat blocking and suppression performance. With regards to the challenge in tunnel fire protection the modern water mist systems can offer usable, durable technology to improve safety not only for passengers but also tunnel infrastructure hence ensuring safer traffic continuity. Water mist system efficiency for large fires in tunnels has been proven by full-scale fire test programs. The results of these extensive test programs can be used for design criteria for different sized and shaped tunnels even for the traffic tunnels with the heavy goods vehicles.
In metro stations as well as in transportation tunnels, the primary objective is to rapidly cool the environment, suppress and control a fire, so that production of smoke is minimized and surrounding areas are not able to re-ignite. On railway vehicles, the fixed fire protection system must be robust enough to withstand constant movement, vibration and vandalism, while being constantly available to attack against various fires within passenger compartments, driver cabins and engine compartments. In all cases, safe evacuation of personnel is the most urgent priority but also to minimize property damage and to secure the business continuity.

HI-FOG is a patented Marioff fire protection technology utilizing high pressure to produce a fine water mist. It combines the extinguishing characteristics of water without any safety hazards for personnel or the environment. Originally developed for use on passenger ships, the technology is increasingly being applied to land-based projects, including some of the world's leading metro systems e.g. in London and Madrid. Advantages of HI-FOG are that systems are easy to install, particularly on retrofits, and water discharged is minimal. This ensures that damage caused to facilities and equipment by fire fighting is limited, reducing cleanup times and costs. Only pure water is used, so there is no risk to personnel and the environment.

Marioff has an experienced project and service team that has successfully completed projects all over the world. A large number of fast-paced retrofit projects have been undertaken within very tight time schedules. The Marioff workshops have a strong reputation based upon the vision to solve the most difficult customer needs, backed by an active investment policy, which ensures that the company remains very competitive.

Underground fire protection milestones in Marioff history are: - 1992 orders for London Underground of HI-FOG fire protection systems to protect self-contained store rooms; - 1994 installation of HI-FOG systems at Madrid Metro, today over 200 stations in Madrid Metro are already equipped with HI-FOG; - 2000 HI-FOG fire protection on 80 metro trains for Madrid Metro continued to a protection of 142 new metro trains in 2005; - and after few years of extensive full-scale fire testing in tunnels Marioff signed in 2005 the contract of the world's largest water mist fire protection project for A86 ring road tunnel in Paris, France. Marioff head office is in Finland, with subsidiaries in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden, UK and US.

Marioff Corporation Oy, PO Box 86/Virnatie 3, FI-01301 Vantaa, Finland, tel +358 9 870 851, fax +358 9 875 399. e-mail info@marioff.com or visit www.marioff.com