The company started out in 1992 with 30 employees and a single rotary freezer. Today, the medium-sized company produces around 18,000 tons of ice cream every year. More than 200 different cold products are produced by 250 employees on the Bodden coast of Western Pomerania for the international trade. In order to meet the increasing demand for ice cream and to continue to position itself at the top of the market, the company from Ribnitz-Damgarten has invested in an automated deep-freeze warehouse.

Active fire prevention
The automated deep-freeze complex, which was completed in 2019, is 100 meters long, 25 meters wide and 30 meters high. With a volume of 75,000 cubic meters, the high-bay warehouse has three aisles with double-deep pallet storage. "The expansion of the deep-freeze area gives us an additional storage capacity of 12,000 pallet spaces," explains Thomas Fürtig, Operations Manager at Eisbär Eis. The goods are stored, retrieved and picked automatically using a modern warehouse management system. A fire protection solution from Wagner protects these processes from fire-related disruptions: Based on its many years of good experience with Wagner, Eisbär Eis specifically decided to also use an oxygen reduction system for active fire prevention in the new building. As part of the new investment, the oxygen reduction system running in the three existing warehouses was also modernized.

The customer's protection goals were defined in advance: In addition to personal protection, the fire protection solution had to ensure that operational procedures and logistical processes were not interrupted, thus minimizing damage and losses in the event of an emergency. "Business interruption is an absolute no-go. For us, it's about the safety of the warehouse and protecting the new investment. Because our availability always has priority," summarizes Thomas Fürtig.

The use of a conventional, water-based extinguishing system in the deep-freeze high-bay warehouse was out of the question. As such reactive fire protection solutions cannot prevent or even cause a major damage scenario and contamination of the stored food in the event of a fire, the decision was made to use active fire prevention with OxyReduct. Two OxyReduct V-Line systems protect the deep-freeze
complex. A controlled supply of nitrogen is used to reduce the oxygen content in the area to a defined protection level. This deprives a potential fire of the necessary oxygen as soon as it starts. A fire can no longer develop or spread. With active fire prevention, no water is used in the event of a fire starting in the storage area. The space required for the sprinkler system within the warehouse is also eliminated and can be used for additional stored goods.

In addition, the deep-freeze area is equipped with Titanus air sampling smoke detectors for early fire detection, which are installed above the aisles in the deep-freeze warehouse. The systems detect the smallest smoke particles as early as possible and reliably differentiate between fire and deceptive scenarios. Effective countermeasures can thus be initiated, preventing the storage area from being filled with smoke and the goods from being contaminated. The combination of the earliest possible fire detection and active fire prevention provides Eisbär Eis with a comprehensive fire protection solution. Another positive aspect: OxyReduct and Titanus are scalable.

Long-standing partnership
"The customer has had many years of good experience with us and can rely on our solutions being state of the art," explains Reiner Milski, head of the Wagner branch in Berlin. And the customer Eisbär Eis is also satisfied with the technology installed: "The installation was unproblematic, the systems work perfectly and the service provided by the technicians from Berlin is excellent," says Thomas Fürtig, summing up the collaboration. The family business Eisbär Eis Produktions GmbH has had a partnership with Wagner since the older oxygen reduction system was installed in the old warehouse building in 2012.