Fire Detection News

New Nittan modules further expand evolution range capabilities

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Nittan Europe – a leading manufacturer of conventional and addressable fire detection products – has announced a series of new Interface Modules to allow for improved connection of its world class Evolution range to even more third-party equipment than ever before.

The six new Modules cover a variety of interface applications, including door release, sounder control, communication with industrial plant & equipment and non-addressable detectors, plus a mini Module for mounting within other equipment such as Firebeam or Aspirating detectors.

The main Modules feature the same uniform, sleek design for aesthetic appeal, are all EEPROM Addressed (Programmer) and come complete with Short Circuit Isolator; many also have mains rated relay.

The new Modules were officially launched at this year’s FIREX exhibition held at London’s ExCeL.  They were on display along with key Evolution products such as Analogue Addressable detectors (including patented, award winning Dual Optical technology), Audio Visual Devices, Bases, Manual Call Points, Isolators and existing Modules, plus BS EN54 parts 2 and 4 compliant evo+ Fire Alarm Control Panels.

A tried and tested solution, the Evolution range combines truly exceptional and reliable fire detection with a very high degree of protection against unwanted false alarms.  Its highly flexible protocol is resistant to interference and allows for substantial amounts of information to be transmitted at high speed.

The Nittan Group has been at the forefront of the international fire protection industry since 1954.  It continuously innovates and strives for exceptional quality products of the highest standards.

Visit www.nittan.co.uk to learn more about Nittan’s products.

Patol cements relationship with CEMEX

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Patol’s experience and expertise in protecting industrial environments from the threat posed by fire has seen the company supply its Linear Heat Detection Cable (LHDC) to one of the UK’s major producers of cement.

Cemex is a manufacturer of a wide range of British cements from three UK factories, using locally quarried materials and additives to produce cements that are employed in construction projects throughout the UK. At its flagship site in Rugby, a number of plant lubrication systems are a fundamental part of an operation that produces cement and fly ash for ready-mix concrete and precast concrete products, along with a range of packed cement and cementitious products.

The systems circulate cool and filter lubricant oils around critical bearing surfaces of the site’s process equipment and, as such, require a quick and efficient method of addressing any potential fire safety issues. The solution was the Firesense range of LHDC, a cost-effective method of providing early detection of fire and overheating in applications that would not ordinarily be viable, either through the inability to sustain the environment requirements or through prohibitive costs. For the Cemex project, the Digital LHDC option manufactured by Patol was selected.

The cable is installed along the length of the lubrication systems, with alarm relays providing three states of operation: normal, fault and fire. In the event of either a fault or fire condition occurring, the PLC control system of the gearbox lubrication group is automatically placed in a ‘not-ready’ state. This shuts down the pumps, ensuring that the flammable liquids do not pass through the system before an investigation has been carried out to identify the cause of the alarm.

Patol’s Firesense LHDC can be employed in a wide range of applications but is particularly suited to those in which harsh environmental conditions prevail, where there is restricted access to the protected area and where installation of the detection is required in close proximity to the risk. All three criteria were applicable in the case of the Cemex cement plant.

Cemex is one of the world’s top global companies, with a heritage going back over a century. The company has more than 40,000 employees worldwide and has a turnover of around US $15 billion, with annual sales of some £775 million in the UK.

Patol Heat Detection selected for Chemical Processing Operation

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Patol has completed its latest industrial fire project, working with designers and installers Hall & Kay Fire Engineering and P. Gibson (Services) to provide protection for the UK operation of a global specialty chemicals company.

The UK facility of Ashland Industrial Chemicals is based in Kidderminster, part of a business that has been operating for almost a century, starting out as an oil company to diversify into a chemicals conglomerate serving a wide range of markets, from construction and energy to food and beverage, medical and packaging.

In selecting the most appropriate fire detection method for the processing area at the West Midlands’ site, P. Gibson (Services) identified the analogue resettable Linear Heat Detection Cable (LHDC) manufactured by Patol. The cable is a cost-effective option for providing early detection of fire and overheating in applications that would not ordinarily be viable, either through the inability to sustain the environment requirements or through prohibitive costs.

The cable is secured to the bund wall of the external processing area and is monitored in zonal lengths by SIL 2 certified LHDC interface controllers for an elevated temperature or fault status. It is configured to operate in two wire modes to emulate the operation of conventional heat detectors, allowing interfacing with the site’s fire control panels’ trigger circuits.

The LHDC monitoring is connected to a fire suppression system, designed and installed by Hall & Kay Fire Engineering, with mechanical galvanised pipework running throughout the protected area. This ensures swift and automatic intervention in the event of an incident, with foam automatically dispensed if no override instruction is given within the 30 second delay period built into the system.

The LHDC was installed by P. Gibson (Services) who drew on more than 30 years’ experience of sprinkler system design and an in-depth understanding of the standards relating to sprinkler installation to come up with the solution for Ashland. The company is BAFE and ECA certified, offering a range of fire protection services including wiring of sprinkler pump houses, life safety systems, zone checks, trace heating and lagging,maintenance, interfacing to fire alarm and Building Management Systems, and fault-finding services. P. Gibson worked with Hall & Kay Fire Engineering, who were awarded the fire protection contract by Ashland. Hall & Kay can trace its origins back to 1878 and is the UK’s largest independent fire suppression company.

The range of available linear heat detection cables ensures the alarm set point can be matched with the requirements of a given environment, making LHDC suited to many different applications including cable tunnels, escalators, conveyors, warehouse high rise pallet racking and grain solos, to name but a few.

Ashland Global Holdings Inc now operates in over 100 countries and, in addition to producing a wide range of products, offers its customers a dedicated team focused on Analytical Services and Technology (AS&T). In 2018, the Group recorded annual sales of $3.7 billion. The operation located in Kidderminster specialises in the production of adhesives, used extensively in product labelling in supermarkets.

PATOL selected as detection supplier for prestigious project

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A line-type detector supplied by Patol has been selected as the heat detection method in a new fire protection installation in a laboratory working in a Hazardous environment operating within a Ministry Of Defence site.

The fire safety at the laboratory is provided through a Fire Detection system installed by Honeywell featuring a SecuriSens ADW 535-2 line-type heat detector connecting to an extinguishant Fire Control Panel. The detector from Securiton, for whom Patol is the distributor in the UK, is a two-pipe, two-zone system. The sensing tubes filled with normal air have been installed in the areas within the laboratory being monitored, with a fully electronic sensor permanently recording the pressure within the tubes. As a double-knock system, the alarm criteria for both zones must be met before the CO2 extinguishant is released, thereby significantly reducing the potential for false alarms.

The SecuriSens detector can operate in harsh environments subject to corrosive gases, extreme humidity and high temperatures.

A significant benefit of the detector is its low maintenance requirements, with an extremely tough sensing tube (available in stainless steel, copper or Teflon), making it particularly suitable for applications in which functional and maintenance checks are not possible or difficult to undertake. In addition to laboratory environments, it is widely employed in diverse applications, from tunnels, parking areas and loading ramps to vehicle paint spray booths, distilleries and waste treatment facilities.

The detector meets the requirements of EN 54-22 and offers sufficient internal memory to store up to 1,000 events, with a read-out function offering a timestamp and detailed description of each event.

Apollo goes large at FIREX INTERNATIONAL 2019

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Apollo Fire Detectors will be showcasing its internationally renowned products at FIREX International 2019 within the event’s largest ever exhibition zone and will also be running a competition to win an Apollo Test Set worth £350.

Apollo can be found on stand FX510, which is part of a 250 sqm area alongside Advanced, Argus, FFE, Klaxon and LAN Controls, which are all part of Halma PLC, a FTSE 100 company focused on specialist safety, health and environmental technologies.

Visitors to this year’s three-day event, being held from June 18-20 at ExCeL London, will be able to see a variety of Apollo products in action as well as speak with technical experts involved in the Show Me How initiative at FIREX. Warren Moyle, Senior Technical Support Manager and Steve Claxton, Technical Support Engineer will be wearing Show Me How badges identifying them as technical experts for detailed explanations of products and solutions.

There will also be the opportunity for visitors to win an Apollo Test Set. The portable test unit features a 7” touch screen display designed to help engineers and installers investigate, control and maintain individual fire detection devices or complete circuits of analogue addressable devices in the Apollo ranges including CoreProtocol, Discovery and XP95. The Apollo Test Set comes with a 10-year warranty and can be powered from an AC mains charger unit or from its own internal batteries. The handheld device offers fault finding capabilities which helps to reduce time spent on site during the commissioning stage of the system installation, therefore reducing the overall costs of installing Apollo systems.

Ed Browning, Sales & Marketing Director at Apollo said: “FIREX gives us the opportunity to interact with a wide range of professionals within the fire industry and share our knowledge, expertise and solutions. We’re joining forces with five complementary businesses on the largest stand at FIREX so that visitors can quickly and easily find the right information and solutions for them.”

For more information visit www.apollo-fire.co.uk.

Patol introduce new video to highlight importance of Coal Conveyor Protection

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Industrial fire detection specialists Patol have demonstrated the particular suitability of their transit heat sensor to coal conveying applications with a new video shot at Wales’ last remaining coal fired power station.

Patol’s 5000 series of early warning infrared transit heat sensors are protecting the conveyors at Aberthaw power station, in the Vale of Glamorgan. The coal-fired facility has a capacity to generate 1,500MW of electricity – sufficient to meet the needs of some 1.5 million people, so protecting the site’s coal conveyors from the threat of fire is fundamental to maintaining security of supply.

Steve Wilder is a Project Engineer and in the new video he takes the viewer into the heart of the power station to show the conveyors and how they carry the coal from rail delivery and feed it into the boilers serving the site’s three generating units.

Steve shows a sensor unit sited a metre above the conveyors, one of several sensors located at the Head and Tail end of each conveyor. The sensors are designed to pick up a heat signature from the coal passing through their field of vision beneath by identifying any ‘hot spots’. This is well before any potential sparks or embers are present, enabling the all-important early intervention in a combustible environment. In the event of a sensor going into alarm, the conveyor stops and sprinklers are automatically activated to douse the affected area and prevent the danger passing further into the facility and causing more serious damage.

Steve comments – “it was a great privilege to actually show the sensors in-situ and in a real working environment. It allows us to demonstrate what a difficult area it is to protect due to the nature of the coal being conveyed, and why in this application we have the ATEX certified sensor specifically designed for such hazardous environments. Coal dust can accumulate on the sensor housing, which is why we use compressed air to ensure the sensor lens remains clean for optimum performance.”

Aberthaw is one of many power stations throughout the world that are protected by Patol’s infrared transit heat sensors.

The new video can be viewed on Patol’s website (www.patol.co.uk) under the ‘Products and Services’ section and the sub-category ‘Infrared transit (conveyor) heat and flame sensors’.

Kentec on-board Red Funnel Ferries

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Kentec fire safety control panels have been chosen for the refurbishment of fire systems on the Red Funnel Ferry Group’s vehicle ferries that operate out of Southampton to the Isle of Wight.


The refitting of the MV Red Osprey, following that of MV Red Falcon back in 2015, now leaves just the MV Red Eagle to be completed as part of Red Funnel Group’s multi-million pound refurbishment of its three vehicle ferries. This major project has seen the interior design and facilities of each ship replaced with a bright, modern and stylish new look which has set a high level of passenger facilities and comfort on board this popular Isle of Wight ferry route for both pleasure and business commuters.

Refurbishment of the three vehicle ferries’ fire systems has also been an important part of this project, in order to ensure the safety of passengers and crew. The fire safety system, designed by leading marine fire suppression and protection experts Fireboy-Xintex UK Operations Ltd., has been engineered using Kentec Syncro ASM 2 Loop Control panels and Apollo Devices. The Syncro ASM systems are also Red Funnel Ferries’ choice on the newly built fast passenger ferry ‘Red Jet 6’ and soon to be ‘Red Jet 7’.

Syncro ASM analogue addressable fire control panels are available with Germanischer Lloyd, Det Norske Veritas, Korean Register, Nippon Kaiji Kyokai and China Classification type approval for a wide range of marine fire alarm system applications that now includes Marine Equipment Directive Approval MED. Compatible with Apollo or Hochiki marine approved detection devices, Syncro ASM fire control panels can be networked to provide scalable fire alarm systems, suitable for many types of vessel.
For product information Kentec +44 (0)1322 222121 or visit www.kentec.co.uk

Bespoke Fire Panels With Advanced’s AdSpecials Service

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Bespoke Fire Panels With Advanced. For customers requiring custom fire panels, Advanced’s AdSpecials team will work with them to design and manufacture unique panels and control interfaces for its fire systems, whatever the installation challenge.

Advanced has been building the easiest-to-use fire panels for nearly 20 years and has supplied AdSpecials all over the world. The company is highly skilled in meeting even the most complex of requests.

“We offer a full turnkey service and will work with you to develop your brief into a finished special panel, covering just about any requirement. We make the complicated easy, within budget. When you work with our AdSpecials team you’re talking to vastly experienced engineers,” says Advanced’s Head of Marketing Aston Bowles.

The AdSpecials process is as follows:

Specification and Quote The specification stage is critical to ensuring that the company thoroughly understand the customer’s needs. Advanced takes great care to get to the heart of user requirements and will work closely with customers to develop a comprehensive brief.

Preparation Advanced works with the customer to develop a watertight, achievable spec to budget and deadline.

Confirmation to Manufacturing Once the order is approved, Advanced’s highly experienced engineers work up full manufacturing designs. On final approval, the company’s end-to-end manufacturing team build and test the product to the highest quality levels, so the final installation and config are fault-free.

Every AdSpecial is different, but some recent examples include geographical mimics, sprinkler indication, fireman’s/fan and damper controls and evacuation control.

To obtain a brochure about the AdSpecials service please contact[email protected].

New Extinguishant Release Control Panel from Haes now available to pre-order

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The latest control panel from the UK’s leading conventional fire control panel manufacturer, its flexibility, intuitiveness and reliability is unparallelled.

Leading conventional control panel manufacturer Haes have successfully launched their new and innovative fire extinguishant release control panels at Intersec 2018. With the ability to release an extinguishant gas to single or dual flooding areas, these control panels are fully configurable to control automatic extinguishant release in multiple scenarios within different industries and businesses. Now available to pre-order, shipping from 1st Feb 2018.

Intuitiveness is paramount to this product, which exhibits the largest graphical backlit display of any extinguishant panel on the market and is quick to set-up with its unique remote display autolearn feature. Alert zones are quickly seen on this industry leading display panel, the easy to interpret icons, graphical representation of each stage and simple menu-style navigation creating an intuitive and attractive interface. It is also possible to customise the interface with your business logo.

Reliability and compliance come hand-in-hand with this UK manufactured control panel. With 3 or 6 zones available (depending on the respective panel), it offers fully configurable zone voting for gas release and displays programmable countdown timers at each stage of the alarm to suit the exact requirements of the site. Quality assured with Haes’ unique triple testing process, it complies with the latest approval standards; EN12094-1, EN54-2 and EN54-4 and includes integral battery back-up. The panels provide support for both metron and solenoid type actuators.

The control panel really does go the extra mile in its inherent reliability and convenience features. Time and date stamped event logs are integrated for false alarm management or use for insurance claims, ensuring you can have complete peace of mind in the event of an unexpected incident. Large Hold Off & Abort remote buttons can be mounted in pertinent places for increased flexibility and assurance.

Rashid Ahmed – Manufacturing Operations Manager said, “The development of this extinguishant panel has been a fantastic project for our whole R&D department to work on.  From the start our objective was to design and manufacture a panel that would stand out in the market place via it’s simplicity and power and we’ve certainly achieved that with features such as the largest display on the market and the auto-learn feature.  The initial feedback from clients is extremely positive and this is a great addition to our leading range of conventional control panels.”

Haes is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of fire detection and alarm products, manufacturing a renowned range of control and indicating equipment, power supplies, relays and other system peripherals. The Haes Extinguishant Release Control Panel is an incredible addition to their range, complementing their current alarm system technology. 

Browse what Haes have to offer at haes-systems.com or get in touch with Haes’ expert team on 01895 422066 or [email protected] to find out more on their range of fire detection and alarm systems.

Life Is Sweeter with Advanced Protection

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The Chocolate Quarter, one of the UK’s most stylish retirement complexes, is now protected by industry-leading Advanced fire panels from Advanced. 

Originally the home of Fry’s chocolate, the iconic collection of 1920s buildings has been sympathetically developed by KWL Architects and Andrew Wilson Developments for Bristol-based charity, the St Monica Trust. The result is an impressive complex of high-spec apartments, elegant living spaces and a range of leisure facilities. As well as protecting the multi-tenant retirement apartments and care home, the Advanced system also covers a doctors’ surgery, offices, spa, retail space and car park.

MFS designed, installed and commissioned the Advanced system, which comprises a network of 19 MxPro 5 single-loop, four-loop and repeater panels with Hochiki smoke and heat detectors, multi-sensors and heat detection cable.

The installation of MxPro 5 means that the fire system is also linked to the site’s DECT using an ESPA interface, which allows live fire system status information to be passed to staff pagers.

Speaking about the installation, Rick Coles, Managing Director at MFS, said: “The project required complicated cause and effect because of the buildings’ wide variety of uses. The sheltered accommodation and extra care areas needed a completely different approach to the communal areas, shops and restaurants. The complex also has a spa and hydro pool, so we faced an entirely different set of challenges in those areas.

“We chose Advanced panels because of their reliability and the high level of flexibility and ease they offer when programming cause and effect. Although useful for any project, this versatility really comes into its own on large multi-use sites with many different demands. We also had to link the fire system with the site’s DECT, which is very straightforward to do using Advanced equipment and an ESPA interface.”

Phil Calvey, Advanced Sales Manager for the South West, commented: “Advanced’s MxPro 5 panels are particularly suited for use in residential and care home settings. The Chocolate Quarter is a demanding site with a wide range of uses. Many of its residents are elderly and false alarms can cause considerable confusion and distress, so the installation had to offer the highest levels of protection and peace of mind.”

The MxPro 5 is the leading multiprotocol fire panel range available and offers high-performance fire detection and alarm control across multi-panel networks and multiple sites. MxPro 5 panels are EN54 parts 2, 4 and 13 approved. They can be used in single loop, single panel format or easily configured into high-speed, 200-panel networks covering huge areas.

MxPro offers customers a choice of two panel ranges, four detector protocols and a completely open installer network, backed up by free training and support. Advanced’s ease of installation and configuration make MxPro customisable to almost any application.

Advanced is a world leader in the development and manufacture of intelligent fire systems. The legendary performance, quality and ease of use of its products sees Advanced specified in locations all over the world, from single-panel installations to large, multi-site networks. Advanced’s products include complete fire detection systems, multi-protocol fire panels, extinguishing control, fire paging and false alarm management systems. More details can be found on the website at www.advancedco.com