Case Studies
Waste Centre Stratos Cuts Waste Site's False Alarm Rate to Zero A waste transfer site has reduced its false alarms from up to five a day to zero by employing a Stratos-HSSD ® (High Sensitivity Smoke Detection) system from AirSense Technology. The Waste Recycling Group (WRG) handles more than 15 million tonnes of household, industrial and commercial waste every year from its sites located throughout the UK. As part of WRG's investment in recycling infrastructure in Luton, the Kingsway Materials Recycling Facility was developed to accommodate 25,000 tonnes of recyclable material every year. A particular problem for the site was a poorly designed point detector based fire detection system which was regularly generating some 3-5 false alarms daily. With the introduction of the new Chief Fire Officers Association policy, which could see fire service cover withdrawn from problem sites unless verification of an automatic fire alarm is provided, the Group were keen to address the situation at Kingsway.  WRG approached electrical contractors who worked closely with WFP (Fire and Security) Limited to design and commission a system which provided the early warning of fire, so important to a facility which predominantly handles paper waste but one which was not prone to false alarm. WFP designed a bespoke combination of aspirating technology and an addressable system comprising three Stratos HSSD® detectors and a single Stratos-Micra ® 25 detector connected via an addressable loop with combined sounder beacons and manual call points controlled from a single control panel. Stratos was selected for its ability to cope with harsh environments, using ClassiFire-3D³ Perceptive Artificial Intelligence (PAI) technology to accurately 'condition' the detectors to suit the environment they are protecting. ClassiFire-3D³ discriminates between 'dirty' and 'clean' operating periods, such as day and night, automatically substituting appropriate system sensitivity without the need for external input or adjustment. Smoke tests were conducted at the Kingsway facility with Stratos manufacturer AirSense, demonstrating the suitability of the technology to the site's particular requirements. Paul Field, Managing Director of WFP Fire & Security commented – "We have used Stratos to protect a number of dirty environments and it has proved the ideal solution time and time again. We were therefore confident that it could overcome the false alarm problems being experienced by WRG and we worked closely with AirSense. Our approach to fire detection is to have a system that people are not aware of unless there is a problem. By combining the appropriate technology with attention to detail at the design and commissioning stages, that is exactly what we have achieved for WRG."
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