<VV> Magnesium Fires

[Dale Smiley]

    This is something I know a 'little' about. My late father worked for 
Allison Aircraft Division of GMC (what is now Rolls Royce) in 
Indianapolis for 37 years, from 1933 to 1970. I remember him telling 
about when they started making engine parts from magnesium. They found 
out the hard way how easy it was to ignite the chips, powder and 
shavings left over from the machining processes and why you should not 
try to put it out with water!
    The Allison folks eventually settled on powdered graphite as the 
solution to mag fires. They kept large buckets of the stuff hanging on 
or near any machine that processed magnesium. The graphite was used to 
smother the burning material, depriving it of oxygen, which, as someone 
else pointed out is the only practical way to put out a mag fire. This 
was in the early 1950s before CO2 was common and Halon was not yet used 
to fight fires.
    Dad said they never had any trouble with the actual parts catching 
fire, probably due to mass. It is my understanding that most  things 
that use magnesium for burning like flares, etc., use strips or powdered 
forms. It seems to me that it would have to be a pretty large fire to 
set a vair fan off!
    Just my two cents worth!!!

Back to lurking!

Dale Smiley
Broadcast Engineer, Corvair Nut
'66 Corsa Turbo (Currently 'group red')