NEWS

Sheffield Hallam University upgrades to Morley-IAS Fire Systems

Sheffield Hallam is the UK’s sixth-largest University with 3000 staff offering 650 courses to 24000 students; the University is also a significant force in post-graduate research and has close contacts with industry. Based on campuses in and around Sheffield city centre, the University’s Facilities Management team were faced with the all too common problem of how to replace and upgrade existing self-contained fire protection systems to bring the quality of cover up to the latest standards. Maintaining continuity during the upgrade, minimising cost and disruption, providing a future-proofed system for further enhancements and ongoing maintenance requirements were the key considerations.

Morley-IAS Fire Systems carried out extensive compatibility testing, planned and monitored by M & E Consultants Service Design Associates, with the three different types of installed system. Following the satisfactory completion of the tests, the University’s Project Manager, David Livingstone, chose the ZX range of intelligent control panels as the new platform. The ZX is a multi-protocol panel, compatible with the communication protocols from the leading addressable sensor manufacturers, Apollo, Hochiki, Nittan and System Sensor Europe, so the existing fire systems installed in the various buildings could be sequentially connected to the new panels without new detectors having to be installed. The ZX also features integral secure RS485 networking capability, providing multi-building distributed control with up to 99 interlinked panels. The new system will provide a single main reporting point in the fire, security and access control management centre, with a graphic interface enabled over a RS485 serial link to the University’s facilities management suite that allows remote monitoring of the system’s status by authorised and trained managers.

Morley-IAS have more than 400 approved and trained installers of their equipment located throughout the UK; five firms were asked to tender and Overton Electrical, who had already installed several systems in prestigious local sites, were awarded the contract. The initial phase, covering the City Centre Campus of nine buildings, started on 1 July and will finish at the end of August, with each building having to rely on manual activation of the fire protection system for one day or less during the upgrade. The other campus buildings will be integrated into the new networked system on a rolling basis.

A new Horizon in fire detection systems from Morley IAS

Feature-rich 2, 4 and 8 Zone conventional fire control panel is installer- and user-friendly

The new Horizon range of conventional fire control panels from Morley-IAS provides installers with the same "out the box, on the wall" benefits found in the company's addressable panels, while for users, the units incorporate many advanced features normally only found in larger systems. Designed for use in schools, garages, retail units, community centres, doctors' surgeries, smaller hotels, guest houses and other commercial premises, Horizon is available in 2, 4 or 8 Zone versions. It is optimised to take full advantage of the enhanced features available in the latest Horizon conventional detectors and devices from other approved manufacturers.

For the installer, an intuitive 'Quick Start Guide' is provided, enabling the system to be configured extremely quickly. For the end user, Horizon offers sophisticated options designed to minimise the incidence of false alarms, such as coincidence detection, where two detectors in adjacent zones must go into alarm before the panel initiates the sounders. Programmable delay to allow trained staff members to investigate the source of the indicated fire, and compatibility with the latest multi-criteria detectors, ensures that Horizon will detect an actual fire as quickly and reliably as possible without frequent false alarms. As an incidental benefit for schools, a 'class change' input allows sounders to
be activated to mark the end of lesson periods.

Horizon is housed in a flame retardant ABS enclosure, 318 x 356 x 96mm, fitted with top and rear cable entry knockouts. 2, 4 or 8 detector zones, two sounder zones, two configurable digital inputs and an auxiliary power output are provided. An optional relay output card enables fire and fault
signals from Horizon to be integrated with other systems installed in the premises.

A full range of datasheets is available on our downloads page under the heading Flame Detectors. Follow this link to the downloads page.

Adding a new Dimension to Crocodilopolis

The Morley-IAS distributor in Egypt, Heliotech, has won the contract to provide the fire protection systems for the latest round of antiquity warehouse construction, installing the new Dimension series 2-loop and 4-loop addressable fire panels to give 21st century protection to 6000 year old treasures. Only launched at Fire Expo 2003, the Dimension range of control panels are already proving to be an industry favourite because of their combination of advanced technology, multi-protocol support, simple installation, easy commissioning and stable and reliable operation. Dimension’s built-in compatibility with the leading detector manufacturers’ protocols such as Apollo Xplorer, XP95 and Discovery, Hochiki ESP, System Sensor Europe and Morley-IAS, allows fire engineering companies unparalleled freedom of choice when specifying their system components.

Egypt contains about 60% of the world’s known monuments and antiquities, of which only a small fraction can be on display in museums at any one time. Priceless and irreplaceable, the antiquities, in some cases dating back to 4000BC, are stored in purpose-designed warehouses located throughout the entire area; a rolling programme of new warehouse construction is in hand to provide secure storage for the ever-increasing number of items discovered as archaeological investigations continue. Many of the relics are statues of Sobek, who symbolised the might of the Pharaohs. Normally depicted as a crocodile or in human form with the head of a crocodile, crowned by a pair of plumes, Sobek was widely worshipped.

Heliotech have installed and commissioned half the systems from the first round of new build in locations as far apart as Aswan, one of the centres of the Sobek cult in the south, known to the Greeks as Crocodilopolis, and Marsa Matrouh, close to the Libyan border on the Mediterranean coast.