Fire & Hazard Protection
Vimpex Launches a Programmable Wireless Acoustic Door Holder
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impex Limited, the specialist supplier of fire detection, alarm and evacuation solutions, has introduced an innovative wireless magnetic door holder to its range of products. The battery-powered unit is triggered acoustically when the fire alarm sounders are activated. No external wiring is required and a pair of standard ‘C’ cell batteries provides power for more than a year. Battery life indication and low battery warning allows batteries to be changed during normal maintenance. Advanced, intelligent, digital technology learns the sound of the building’s fire alarm, meaning false activations are all but eliminated. Its attractive compact design suits any environment and it can be programmed for regular daily releases, e.g. to release at night and resume holding in the morning. This function is particularly useful in day-care centres, care homes
and residential homes. With a 200N holding force even heavy fire doors can be easily held open. A manual release button is also included.
With the addition of this new model,
the Vimpex range of EN 1155 approved electromagnetic door holders offer the installer the broadest choice of mounting styles, holding power and installation accessories. Mounted onto a fixed surface, Vimpex door holders ensure retention of the fire door by means of a smart metallic keeper plate. Interfaced with the fire alarm system, the door holders
Fast response from Fike Fire System saves lives
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ignificant structural fire damage and potential loss of life have been avoided following the fast and orderly evacuation of a block of 5 apartments in Blackpool, UK, following a fire. One of the tenants returned home after a night out and prepared some food. They then fell asleep and the kitchen area caught fire. The Fike TWINFLEX smart 2-wire fire detection system instantly raised the alarm and its powerful alarm confirmation facilities ensured a fast and safe evacuation of all the tenants before the escape route became compromised. The fire brigade arrived in time to put out the fire before significant damage was caused to the rest of the building. The fire detection system was designed and installed by DD Fire Alarms, a company specialising in providing dependable and cost effective alarm systems for houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) and hotels. The TWINFLEX control panel is mounted in the entrance hall and is connected to 26 Multipoint detectors, which are installed in the 5 apartments and communal areas. Each Multipoint detector can be configured to any one of 7 detection modes, allowing it to be closely matched
16 fire & hazard protection
to its surrounding environment. In the case of this apartment block, the detectors in the dwellings were set to low-sensitivity smoke to reduce false alarms, apart from the kitchen area, where the detector was set to heat mode. The smoke detectors in the communal areas were set to a higher sensitivity, allowing for a faster response. In addition to multiple detection modes, each Multipoint detector can include an integral 90db sounder, further increasing the flexibility and reducing the installation costs of the system.
“The building is wired on separate zones with alarm confirmation delays programmed so the alarm in the rest of the building is only raised if there is a genuine fire in one of the flats,” said Darren Johnson, Managing Director of DD Fire Alarms. “This ensures false alarms are all but eliminated. In fact in the two years the Fike TWINFLEX system has been installed there has only been one false alarm and that was from a tenant activating a manual call point.” The alarm confirmation technology built into the TWINFLEX panel has proved to be very popular with HMOs. Zones are designated either Dwellings
or Communal. The system has the ability to set a pre-alarm for dwellings, allowing time to investigate the cause of the activation before evacuating the building. This can be programmed between 1 to 5 minutes. Activation in a communal area will initiate a full alarm immediately. When a fire is detected in a dwelling only the local (room) sounder will operate during the alarm verification period to warn the occupants within that particular dwelling. If the detector is still generating an alarm signal after the configured pre- alarm time, the control panel will instantly sound all alarms in the building for full evacuation. This approach ensures safe evacuation in the event of a real fire, as demonstrated here, but doesn’t cause disruption from false alarms.
For further information please contact Fike Safety Technology on Tel: 01633 865 558, Email:
fstinfo@fike.com or visit
www.fikesafetytech.co.uk
Building & Facilities Management – December 2013
are de-energised as soon as the fire is detected thus releasing the door without any harmful delay.
In addition to door holders, Vimpex manufacture and supply a wide range of fire alarm and evacuation products which include: the market-leading Fire-Cryer® Plus voice sounder family; sounders and strobes; fire alarm bells; call points and specialist products such as the Hydrosense Water Leakage system. Tel: +44 (0) 1702 216999 Email:
sales@vimpex.co.uk www.vimpex.co.uk
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