The Power of Silent Nozzles: Quiet Fire Protection for Data Centers

When Fire Protection Becomes a Threat to Data Integrity and how to protect data from noise damages

Fires are a significant threat to data centers, potentially leading to the loss or irreversible damage of vital data. Especially in critical industries such as finance, healthcare, cloud services, or government, even minor data loss can result in drastic fallouts. However, in some cases, the fire suppression system designed to protect these facilities can become a hidden threat. The risk lies in the discharge noise from traditional nozzles—often so loud that it could harm the servers and storage equipment it intends to protect.

There are different storage drives that are sensitive to noise and vibrations. Due to their mechanical components, Hard disk drives (HDDs) are particularly vulnerable to noise-induced disturbances and vibrations. Solid-State Drives (SSDs) are generally more robust against extreme vibrations than HDDs, but they can still suffer damage if exposed to extensive shockwaves or other harsh conditions in the data center environment. Research shows that sound levels above 110 dB, can harm fragile HDDs, causing:

• Read and write errors leading to data corruption

• Degraded disk performance affecting and slowing down operations

• Physical damage to spinning platters inside the drives

In some severe cases, the loud noise could trigger failures across an entire data center's storage infrastructure. The need to inspect and repair equipment could result in taking systems offline, resulting in massive downtime. Next to substantial financial losses, the damage to reputation can be devastating for the business. This is a significant concern for data center operators as they must find the best suppression solution that protects the data center from fire without compromising sensitive hardware.

Finding the right fire suppression agent for modern data centers

Most fire protection solutions typically consist of gaseous suppression systems, water mist and pre-action systems. However, water-based systems can cause irreversible damage to electronics and require extensive cleanup. Therefore, gas extinguishing systems using inert gas or FK-5-1-12 extinguishing agent can be safer solutions to protect valuable equipment from damages.

The ideal data center protection solution with the inert gas total flooding system

Gaseous systems are extremely popular as they provide clean and efficient fire suppression suitable for large and closed spaces. The gas agents easily penetrate enclosed circuitry and hard-to-reach places.

Fire suppression systems using inert gas are an optimal solution as they use pure, naturally occurring gases that ensure no chemical decomposition and therefore no damage to sensitive IT assets. Inert gases occur in nature in the air and therefore, have no impact on the environment. They extinguish fires particularly efficiently as they allow to reduce the oxygen of the area below the oxygen level required for combustion (15 %).

Inert gas fire suppression systems are the ideal choice to protect data centers offering the safest and cleanest fire protection option for sensitive data and IT equipment. Here's why:

• 100% environmentally friendly (usually a mix of nitrogen, argon, or CO₂)

• Safe for humans, it quickly displaces oxygen to suppress fire while staying safe for human evacuation

• Leaves no chemical residues – no cleanup required

Nevertheless, the important challenge on how to control the noise level of discharge remains. With standard inert gas nozzles, the discharge can create a forceful gaseous outflow, generating noise above the safety threshold of 110 dB.

Prevent sound damage and data loss with the INEREX Silent Nozzle

Rotarex Firetec designed the innovative Silent Nozzle, compatible with all used inert gas extinguishing agents at 200 or 300 bar cylinder pressure, for silent extinguishing. The UL-listed and VdS-approved INEREX^® Silent Nozzle has a unique compact design with a special filter-like material allowing the discharge of agent across a wider surface area, eliminating the high-pitch whistle noise that is common with standard nozzles.

Our INEREX^® Silent Nozzle is particularly versatile as it is compatible with the major inert gas blends including IG-01 (100% Argon), IG-100 (100% Nitrogen), IG-55 (50% Argon- 50% Nitrogen) and IG-541 (52% Nitrogen - 40% Argon- 8% CO2). In case there are changes in gas blend preferences, the same nozzle configuration can be maintained. This facilitates the design and installations potentially requiring modifications in the future.

Rotarex Firetec has passed the approval tests with all four major inert gas compositions mentioned under VdS and for IG55 and IG541 under UL, highlighting the most flexible, internationally compliant, and future-proof noise-reducing solution on the market.

What are the characteristics of the Silent Nozzle

• Fast and effective discharge over a wider surface area, both axial and radial dispersion of agent

• Minimizes acoustic shock and vibrations, protecting hard discs from failure

• Excellent distribution from any nozzle location, on the ceiling, ground or midheight

• Maintains full fire suppression effectiveness

• Allows uninterrupted business continuity and therefore, prevents losses considerably

Conclusion

With Rotarex Firetec you get the complete fire protection needed to efficiently protect your data center without any risks or compromises deriving from loud discharge noise. With our comprehensive solution, you benefit from a high performing inert gas fire suppression system and advanced noise reduction technology preventing any data damage that could result in costly business disruptions.

Contact us to learn more about your ideal data center protection solution!