Industrial VESDA VLI smoke detection system

The environmental conditions that exist in industrial facilities can present huge challenges. High levels of dust and dirt can cause malfunctions and nuisance alarms, smoke dilution in large volumetric enclosures influenced by air movement and stratification make it difficult to detect the early signs of fire. Normally occurring background levels of smoke cannot easily be distinguished from real fire conditions. Unheated or un-cooled spaces cause temperature extremes outside of the operating range of some smoke detectors.

Onsite activities such as wash downs can damage/destroy smoke detectors. In all, the many challenges a detector must face in these facilities limits the type available and it’s suitability to withstand these challenges.

To provide the best possible fire protection for an industrial application or environment means selecting the correct technology and the most appropriate product in the first instance. It must be purpose built and be able to withstand the conditions on site providing efficient and effective contamination management. The detector must maintain its sensitivity over the life of the detector and provide a low total cost of ownership.

Introducing the Xtralis VESDA VLI
Drawing on more than 25 years of experience and over 1660 projects with ASD in industrial applications, Xtralis™, the leader in air-sampling smoke detection (ASD), launches Industrial VESDA VLI, the ultimate solution for fire protection of harsh environments in one box. VLI is the only solution specifically designed for harsh environments without any need for application engineering. This is a true out-of-the-box solution enabling 4 times longer lifecycle and lowering maintenance requirements by up to 60%.

Most recently, Industrial VESDA VLI was one of the products specifically evaluated by Frost & Sullivan research, awarding Xtralis its 2011 North American New Product Innovation Award in the Fire and Life Safety market. Frost & Sullivan, a global growth partnership company, presents its Awards to companies demonstrating best practices in a variety of regional and global markets. The criteria for the award included leading technology, value-added features and benefits and increased customer return on investment.

For 25 years, VESDA has been the solution of choice for harsh environments based on its core features – absolute detection thresholds, clean-air barriers for optics protection, and advanced air filtration – critical factors to effective detection in industrial applications. Other ASD devices that lack these essential features are more prone to contamination and a reduction in useful service life. Furthermore the use, in these other products, of adaptive smoke detection algorithms that compensate for contamination induced detector drift or existing environmental smoke can delay, or in extreme cases miss detection of slow growth fires, the very fires that Very Early Warning detection is deployed to detect.

Additionally, Industrial VESDA VLI incorporates exclusively designed and patented an industry-first, patented, fail-safe, intelligent filtration technology designed to dramatically reduce contamination in the sampled air, improving detector longevity and reducing service and maintenance by up to 40-60% depending on the environment. The detection chamber background is monitored by another patented Xtralis innovation, in-service background confirmation using a novel user-initiated Clean Air Zero system.

A modular design means the intelligent filter, aspirator, secondary filter and detection chamber are all field-replaceable significantly reducing service downtime and associated costs. VLI also boasts a ruggedized enclosure, rated IP54, providing protection against dust and water spray. Enhanced aspiration enables longer pipe lengths of up to 360m – important for many industrial applications with extended ceiling heights and area coverage.

Mike Rowland, Acting Venue Manager for the Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre (AELEC) says, “We were impressed by the Industrial VESDA VLI detection effectiveness. The VLI system has now been installed and operational since mid March 2011 and is meeting our regulatory requirements whilst providing effective detection despite the challenging conditions of our venue, including high levels of dust from active events and varying airflows”.

“The purpose-built VLI sets a new benchmark for fire detection in industrial applications”, explains Dr. Peter Meikle, Xtralis Vice President for Fire Products and Strategy. “As the pioneers of ASD technology, we’ve combined our technological expertise and 25 plus years of industrial field experience to add a new detector to our VESDA line that will provide very early warning smoke detection for the most challenging environments, at the same time simplifying the deployment of the technology”.

There are over 380,000 VESDA units shipped to date, many of which are in harsh environments. The ability to detect gas, with VESDA ECO further enhances VLI’s capabilities in industrial applications, delivering tremendous improvement in gas detection performance through better area coverage and elimination of the guess work in gas detector placement, ultimately providing up to 46% in capital cost savings, and up to 76% in operational cost savings versus current gas detection technologies.

Industrial VESDA VLI’s capabilities have been proven in the following applications coal mine, sugar mill, paper manufacturing facility and an equestrian center. Industrial VESDA VLI doesn’t stop there – it’s suited for fire detection in many more hash environments, such as:

• Textile plants
• Manufacturing and processing plants
• Mining
• Petrochemical facilities
• Tunnels
• Grain silos
• Power generation facilities
• Timber, pulp and paper plants
• Recycling facilities
• Transportation hubs
• Water treatment facilities
• Warehouses
• Fertilizer plants
• Abattoirs
• Laundries

About Xtralis
Xtralis™ is the leading global provider of powerful solutions for the early detection and visual of fire, gas and security threats. Our technologies prevent disasters by giving users time to respond before life, critical infrastructure or business continuity is compromised.

We protect high-value and irreplaceable assets belonging to the world’s top governments and businesses. Our brands include VESDA® – the world’s No.1 very early warning aspirating smoke detection (ASD) systems; ICAM™ for flexible ASD; ECO™ – Gas detection & environmental monitoring modules for VESDA & ICAM systems; OSID – easy to use smoke detection for open areas; ADPRO® –passive infrared sensors, perimeter, multi-site, and enterprise security; HeiTel – digital video remote monitoring; and, ASIM® – intelligent traffic detection.

For more information, contact:
Web: www.xtralis.com