News

2022/10/20

IBS received high award!

Yesterday we received the ACR Innovation Award for a research project that we carried out together with Synex Tech GmbH.

The ACR Enquete 2022 took place on 19 October 2022 in the Christoph Leitl Lounge of the WKO, with an overwhelming view over the roofs of Vienna.

IBS and Synex Tech GmbH received the coveted ACR Innovation Award for their joint research project on the “Drill-X” drill extinguishing device. Fire brigades no longer have to enter the fire room, but instead drill through walls or roofs and extinguish the fire by means of vaporisation. This is a great advantage, especially in areas that are difficult to access, such as roof areas.

Synex Tech GmbH developed the innovative extinguishing device in several years of work, we – IBS – proved with valid test scenarios that the method with Drill-X actually works. These scenarios had to be developed first:

“No norms and standards for approval tests exist yet for a new type of extinguishing method,” explains Wolfgang Reichör, project manager at IBS: “This means that one challenge was to generate the fire scenarios in such a way that they allow a comparison between a conventional fire brigade operation and the operation with Drill-X.” At the same time, IBS had to show that the tests were actually suitable for testing extinguishing effectiveness. “We validated these scenarios metrologically by measuring the flow rates of the extinguishing water, the temperatures in the fire room and the smoke gases. Thus, it was possible to verify the operational suitability of the novel drill extinguishing device for the first time.”

Our project team – represented by Dr. Günther Schwabegger and Ing. Georg Dammayr – were very pleased to receive this prestigious award.

The ACR Innovation Award as well as the ACR Woman Award and the ACR Start-up Award are presented annually by ACR and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economic Affairs (BMAW), represented by Federal Minister Martin Kocher. This year there was even an anniversary – the prize was awarded within the framework of the 20th Enquete.