Summary
• 2007 was an active year for the fire protection and detection technology sector.
• Upstream fire protection will be a growth area in 2008.
• The biofuels sector is creating new fire safety equipment demand.
• Tighter fire safety rules are shaping the market.
It’s been a busy year for the fire protection industry, with developments across the board.
“2007 was excellent,” said Steve Cooper from Slough-based Euratex Ltd. “There were quite a few new plants and new installations going in alongside upgrades to older equipment,” added Kevin Spiess, sales manager at GreCon Ltd.
One of his companies “big developments” has been its new Safety Information System (SIS) which allows operators to control and monitor their fire protection system from their computer.
Mr Spiess said that SIS is more advanced than previous systems and better than “a series of LEDs blinking on the wall”. It allows each zone to be monitored individually with graphical reports displaying the number of sparks and alarms for up to the last 28 days for a quick overview. The top three monitored areas for sparks and alarms are also reported in text to permit deeper analysis.
GreCon’s move to new headquarters in Blaydon in Tyne also boosted the business, with double the space allowing it to improve production facilities and create a showroom that “allows customers to get an understanding of the machinery”.
Steve Goben, managing director at Steve Goben Fire Safety Ltd, was also upbeat about 2007, with contracts at a number of big-name companies in the timber industry. This month it also became the sole distributor for the Minimax and Minifog range of products.
Board manufacturing
Made in Germany, Minimax and Minifog have proved popular in the board manufacturing sector according to Mr Goben. They use fibre optics to ‘see’ into presses and other production areas that are otherwise difficult to monitor.
Mr Goben described the Minimax range as “the Rolls Royce of spark detection systems” and said that its “recognition as an international standard” offers companies the reassurance that they are “investing in technology that will protect them”.
He added that 70-80% of his company’s business is with the timber industry. “If it’s to do with wood, we’re involved,” he said.
The ability of Firefly AB’s technology to react to sparks in 30 micro seconds has also proved popular with the timber industry, according to UK distributor Orthos (Engineering) Ltd. Employed in around 3,000 sites worldwide, Firefly uses data from the US National Fire Protection Association to determine the ignition point relevant to a particular process. It then designs systems proportionate to the individual risk.
Euratex, GreCon and Steve Goben Fire Safety all say they are now looking forward to a busy 2008. Euratex has already had two enquiries from the wood industries since returning in the new year, according to Mr Cooper, and Mr Goben said that his company is on course to secure the contract for its biggest installation to date.
“We’ve just secured two large installations for January and February, with one pending for March,” he said. “The first quarter is looking very good.”
New technological developments are expected to generate more business in the future, with “upstream protection and backwards propagation” (preventing any fire outbreak from spreading up or down the wood processing line or dust extraction system) high on the agenda.
Mr Spiess said that GreCon is looking at developing moulder protection systems that would take fire protection further up the production line to the source of potential risks.
And Mr Cooper said that Euratex is pushing systems that prevent backwards propagation through a series of valves and other blocks, protecting equipment from the potential spread of fire through the production line. He said that the company had sold around 60 of the units in 2007, “so it’s something the wood industry is waking up to”.
The biofuel market
Other market developments are also impacting on the fire protection industry, with Mr Spiess noting that the increase in biofuel plants, such as paper giant UPM Shotton’s renewable energy plant at Deeside Industrial Park in Wales and timber supplier Balcas‘ pellet factory at Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, was developing a new market for protection systems. This is an area that he sees GreCon expanding into further.
New and tighter regulation is another key market influence, with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRFSO) and the role of insurance companies within it having a particular impact.
“RRFSO is a very important piece of information for us as it puts the onus on companies to ensure their working environments are safe,” said Mr Goben. “Over the last few years, insurance companies have had a big say and are now laying down the law.”
