The International Water Mist Association (IWMA) was founded on 4th April 1998. It started maintaining a permanent office near Magdeburg in 2000, then moved to Hamburg in 2012.
IWMA is the only association exclusively dedicated to water mist fire-fighting and related technologies. In the beginning the aim was to clarify that water mist is no auxiliary technology, but a sufficient method to extinguish fires. Nowadays the organization supports the continued development and research of generic water mist systems.
In 2001 IWMA started organizing annual conferences. The first one took place in Vienna, Austria. The next one will take place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on 28th and 29th October 2015.
Two incidents levelled the way for water mist. First there was the ban of halon in the late 1980s through the Montreal Protocol. Then there was a devastating fire on a passenger ferry – the Scandinavian Star – which killed 158 people. These two events called for alternatives and triggered off the re-discovery and advancement of a technology that has its roots in the 1880s.
In 1998 the time had come to establish an association. Since then IWMA has brought together those who are active in that business. And it dealt with a major issue: the establishment of international guidelines for the approval of water mist systems.
“IWMA has become the world leading forum for manufacturers, laboratories, classification institutions, academic institutions and users of water mist fire-fighting systems”, says Ragnar Wighus, chief scientist at SP Sweden and chairman of the IWMA-board.
International Water Mist Association
Poststraße 33 (im Hamburg Business Center)
D-20354 Hamburg
tel. + 49 (0) 40 35085-215
fax + 49 (0) 40 35085-80
e-mail: info@iwma.net
website: www.iwma.net
