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SOPHISTICATEDFIRE SUPPRESSIONDafo Brand AB is one of the market leading fire fightingcompanies based in the European market. Director ofExport Markets, Mr Holger Pfriem, speaks to LeonardOwen about current market trends and the company’splans to expand its business in important export markets.Written by Eric Payne.

Established in 1919,Dafo Brand ABhas evolved into Sweden’s largest andfastest growing specialised fire fightingequipment company. Dafo first started todevelop fire suppression systems for vehi-cles in the mid 1970s in order to addressthe problem of bush fires that wereresulting from the malfunction of logging machines. “The insurance companies here in

Sweden started to say that somethinghad to be done, which was what promptedour early move into this market,” outlinesMr Pfriem. “We were one of the market’searliest pioneers of the vehicle-based firesuppression systems, which gave us majorstrategic advantage in terms of optimisingour equipment to cope with the vibrations,the heat and the chemical influences thatare unique to that environment.”The risk of false release and non-func-

tionality in the event of fire prompted Dafoto experiment with water, powder-andgas-based solutions of various types, and

in the 1990s the company developed aspecial kind of liquid solution specificallydesigned for use in vehicle-based fire sup-pression systems. “Our systems havebecome more and more specialisedbecause we have so many years of experience to draw upon,” informs MrPfriem. “Our international operationsare mainly geared towards work on vehicle-based fire suppression systems, whereasin Nordic countries we offer customersa wide range of fire suppression productsand systems for use in data centres andother large industrial facilities, as well asall of the fire fighting equipment requiredfor all kinds of vehicles and machinerywith combustion engines.”

A market innovatorDafo prides itself on offering the widestrange of fire fighting products of anycompany based in Scandinavia – and, tothat end, the business also plays anactive role in the product developmentprocess. “We recently started work on aEuropean Union funded project calledVulcan, involving companies such as Volvo,Scania and other well known brands, withthe basic goal of developing a new controlunit with a special interface that can con-nect directly to the vehicle system andwhich enables vehicle manufacturers to better monitor performance,” explainsMr Pfriem. “There are quite a lot of firefighting system manufacturers, whichmeans that, at the moment, there arequite a lot of standalone fire fighting sys-tems. This is good from the point of viewof retrofit installations, although there isalso a tendency among vehicle manufac-‡

Mr Holger PfriemDirector of Export Markets

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turers to want to integrate these systemsinto their vehicle – and this is a trend towhich we need to be attuned.”Another part of the Vulcan project is a

plan to develop a special fire fighting agentcontainer. This will be released in Berlinin October 2014, at the Fire In VehiclesExhibition (FIVE) which is one of themost important events in the global firefighting equipment calendar. “The newcontainer reduces the weight, the spaceand the price of containment and is fareasier to transport than traditional firefighting products,” asserts Mr Pfriem.“We are actually quite excited about theprospect of making this innovation avail-able to customers. Finally, the third partof the Vulcan project is a vehicle-basedsmoke detection system. Until now, itwas not possible to detect smoke in anengine compartment because there are somany different particulate emissions.Traditional smoke systems would there-fore trigger false alarms, so it was a big challenge to develop sucha system. Today, the only way to detect afire in an engine compartment is by heatdetection. We want to develop a systemthat avoids false releases, which are bothexpensive and time-consuming for our customers.”In terms of customers, Dafo Brand

works with many of the largest and mostsophisticated OEMs in the global auto-motive, container handling, mining, log-ging and power generation industries.This includes for instance the likes ofMAN, Solaris, Higer, Atlas Copco Volvo,Scania, Yutong, John Deere, Caterpillarand Cargotec.

Systems built to lastTurning his attention to Dafo Brand’s man-ufacturing capacities and capabilities, MrPfriem tells us that the company’s mainoffice is located in Sweden, with a sistercompany in Finland and sales partnersall over the world. “We have very tightco-operation with all of these partners,which is necessary because we have tokeep the same standards and we have tofulfil customer requirements wherever theproduct is delivered,” he remarks. “All ofthe components that we use have to haveprecisely the same quality and applicationwhether the product is intended for usein Sweden, India, China or other coun-tries in different climate zones.”To that end, the impact of regulation is

particularly significant for the fire fighting

industry, as Mr Pfriem describes. “Thereare more and more regulations, alliedwith more and more demands on the firefighting systems. As a result, the marketis getting bigger and there are many newplayers. However, many of those compa-nies only make cheap systems that theysell in large numbers. It is our role as anestablished manufacturer to explain tocustomers that those systems will createmore problems than they solve in thelonger term. Dafo Brand, by contrast, isabsolutely committed to providing high-quality solutions.”With respect to quality and safety

control, Dafo Brand is ISO 9001 and ISO14001 certified. Dafo Brand has also goneto the trouble of acquiring national certifi-cates to enable the company to work in awide variety of specific export markets.“For instance, Israel is the first countryin the world to demand fire suppressionsystems on all of its buses as a matter oflaw, and they have developed a standardcalled IS6278 to facilitate this, with whichall fire suppression system manufacturersmust comply,” he reflects. “We thereforehave to adapt our systems to meet thesespecial requirements in order to ensurethat the products function properly. Thisis also why we only use certified installers,who can assure that standards are main-tained throughout the entire sales andaftersales process. Moreover, we take greatpride in being alert to warranty cases, fromwhich we always strive to learn.”

A co-operative sales approachObviously, research and innovation play acentral role in the company’s operationsand, to that end, Dafo Brand is workinghard to develop its vehicle-based fire sup-pression systems. “We work with part-‡

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ners around the world in order to makeour products available to as many mar-kets as possible,” informs Mr Pfriem.“Moreover, some of the partners withwhich we work have adopted the Dafoname while other partners retain a sepa-rate identity in order to market a range ofvehicle-related products. Regardless of theapproach, it is vitally important that ourpartners have the same kind of educationor foreknowledge, which gives us a platformon which to build in terms of instructingthem how best to sell our products.” This co-operative approach is also

reflected in the company’s relationship to and interaction with the fire fightingindustry in general. “Many of my colleagueshave worked as mechanics on the customerside, so they understand what is wantedand are able to easily address problems onsite,” reflects Mr Pfriem. “We have dailycontact with our partners and our cus-tomers and we always strive to incorporatethis feedback into our product develop-ment and R&D processes. Internationalvehicle OEMs have global reach and dis-tribution and we have to be able to matchtheir global footprint.”To that end, there is likely to be ever

more demand in fire suppression sys-tems as developing countries move upthe value chain and begin to understandthe kinds of tools that are available toimprove their performance. In additionto this, there are also important techno-logical trends in which Dafo is aiming tolead the market, as Mr Pfriem tells us: “Inthe past, mostly dry chem powder wasused, but there is now a trend towards the

use of water-based fire fighting agents,which have the capacity to cool over-heated engine parts without corrodingcomponents. Indeed, it has been demon-strated in studies that 85 per cent of battery fires will reignite without theapplication of a liquid fire suppressionmedium, which obviously provides addi-tional motivation for adopting such a method.”

Shifting priorities There are four key characteristics that havehelped to define Dafo and its offering tothe market as far as Mr Pfriem is con-cerned. “Number one is, of course, theright product; second is our personalengagement with the customer; third isour flexibility in terms of both the way inwhich we work and in terms of our productoffering,” he affirms. “Lots of customersdemand adaptations to address their par-ticular requirements and we really try tolive up to their expectations. Finally, thereis our specific know-how, so not only dowe have a good product, personal engage-ment and a flexible approach, but we alsohave the know-how to make it all fittogether. This is something that we workreally hard to teach our partners, so thatthey can share our unique mix of technicaland hands-on knowledge and experience.”Looking to the future, there are signif-

icant prospects for the growth of the busi.“We plan to invest more in new marketsand countries that are not normallyregarded as priorities,” he attests.“Indeed, more and more of these mar-kets are popping up and prompting us toshift our focus away from the areas thatwe are more prepared to address. Newregulations and new demands, even incountries that are not regarded as rich,have enormous potential for futuregrowth,” he concludes. o

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