Fire Fighting Foam OFB has developed both foams as medium expansion foams, OFB foam 1 and OFB Foam 3 to effectively handle all firefighting requirements.

OFB Foam 1 – Foam 1 is a foam which expands 30-40 to 1, specifically designed to run through CAFS (compressed air foam) systems, and inductor systems. The foam bubble structure is medium density.

  • OFB Foam 1 is highly effective on coal fires – as deep seated penetration is needed. It can also be used as a general purpose foam for structural fires, car fires, petrochemical fires, wild-land fires.
  • OFB Foam 1 attacks the radiant heat.
  • OFB Foam 1 is also effective on aluminium and magnesium fires, car fires, and is very effective on A, B, C and D class fires. 
  • OFB Foam 1 has been used extensively in the mining industry, petro-chemical industry and the military in Australia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, the USA and Malaysia. 
  • OFB Foam 1 is totally biodegradable, non-toxic and has no PFAS or PFOS present. 
  • OFB Foam 1 has been supplied to the Hunter Valley NSW mining industry for 23 years. It has recently passed EPA requirements for use in NSW. 
  • Minimum to no clean-up and is safe for storm water systems.

OFB Foam 3 – Our OFB 3 Foam was developed in October 2018 at the request of NSW Mines and Rescue, Hunter Valley, NSW, who asked OFB to develop a thick shaving type foam that could be utilized to fill the drill holes to alleviate the risk of fires that start when they are drilling core holes through the coal seams.

  • With its deep seated penetration, it attacks the radiant heat. It is proven highly effective at leaving the membrane intact over petrochemical pool fires. 
  • On petrochemical fires, the foam immediately attacks the hydrocarbons and dissipates them. In recent tests on heptane fires burning at 800 degrees Celsius, this foam brought down the temperature to ambient on extinguishment. 
  • This foam is highly effective on all fires except electrical (A,B,C,D class fires) 
  • On structural fires, the foam will cling on a vertical surface and hangs there. It immediately starves the fire of oxygen resulting in rapid extinguishment. 
  • OFB foam 3 is bio-degradable, has a 10 year shelf life, environmentally friendly and has no PFAS or PFOS. 
  • The feed-back from the industry is that OFB foams 1 and 3 are revolutionary products.

To the best of our knowledge there is no firefighting foam available that is environmentally benign and satisfies the fire engineering criteria that OFB foam has been independently accredited for by “LastFire” test protocol

Environmental concerns have led to the gradual removal from the market of PFOS based AFFF firefighting foams, which dominated the world firefighting foam market until they were banned. The fire industry has been searching for effective replacement environmentally friendly products in recent years. As part of that search, the major oil companies based in Australia arranged for the world recognised LastFire certification body, to undertake a series of certification tests in Australia during September 2005. Following successful testing “LastFire” has now certified OFB 1 and the OFB Compressed Air Transfer Systems.

OFB foams can safely enter the storm water system without any damage to the environment. All other foams have to be contained in a sump and be disposed of – a very costly method. Both OFB foam 1 and foam 3 are highly effective on wild-land fires and can be used out of an aircraft to extinguish these fires. OFB foams have also been trialed through MINDEF [Ministry of Defence (Singapore)] programs and have successfully extinguished exotic fuels, i.e. Lithium, white phosphorous, and the other exotic components used in weaponry. OFB 1 Firefighting Chemical is highly effective on A, B and D class fires:-

  1. OFB 1 has an expansion ratio of more than 30 : 1
  2.  OFB 1 foam proves to be of exceptional quality 
  3. OFB 1 performs extremely well on a Heptane fire with a temperature of over 800°C. 
  4. Total extinguishment was achieved in 13 seconds with no burn-back after disturbance of the foam blanket.

Note: Classes of Fires Class A: Ordinary combustibles Class B/C: Flammable liquid and gas Class C or Class E: Electrical Class D: Metal

Certification LASTFIRE certification was obtained at the Melbourne University Of Technology, Victoria. Tests were called by the petrochemical industry to find a replacement foam for the AFFF foams. There were 27 different companies testing their foams at the Fiskville Fire Training College Ballarat Victoria on 22 January 2008, for last fire certification. Out of 27 companies, OFB Foam 1 gained the highest pass rating Tests conducted – Matrix & Victoria University personnel attended at CFA Fiskville, Victoria. The results of the tests were as follows.

  • The fire was extinguished in ± 13 seconds. 
  • The surface temperature of the pan and the fuel were cool to the touch after extinguishment. 
  • No re-ignition occurred.