Communication centres, computer suites and call centres, particularly those with high ceilings or incorporating air conditioning, are especially at risk. Likewise archives, museums and heritage buildings all share zero tolerance to delay of any kind when it comes to fire safety.

In such cases, conventional smoke detectors are too insensitive and can be easily rendered ineffective by the filters in air conditioning units, the introduction of fresh make-up air and high airflows. Often, the time taken for smoke to achieve sufficient density to activate even the most advanced-design conventional high-level sensor may be too long.

Air is continuously drawn into the piping network by an internal aspirator. A sample of this air is transported through the filter to the detection chamber. Using advanced laser tech nology, the detector analyses the air sample and sends an analogue signal of airborne smoke intensity to a remote or integrated Display Module.

This information is then relayed from the Display Module to a central fire alarm control panel or a building management system via intelligent interfaces or relay contacts. The Display Module is programmable, enabling sensitivity and alarm level settings to be selected by the user.

Aspirating Detection Systems can actually reduce the number of unnecessary and disruptive false alarms. They use a unique monitored dual-stage filter cartridge to trap most larger particles while allowing only the smaller smoke particles to pass through for analysis. Additionally, the sensitivity level can be set having first sampled the ambient smoke and air contamination levels.