Posts tagged: Detection

João Paulo Ajami, Managing Director at Global Fire Equipment (GFE), reveals insights into GSS Group’s acquisition of NIBBLE and the significant strides toward sustainability in GFE’s operations

How significant is the UK market to Global Fire Equipment’s overall business strategy?

The UK market is crucial to our strategy and always been a key focus due to its potential.

In the early stages, it comprised about 47% of our turnover.

The presence of dominant domestic players who hold a substantial market share has been challenging, but our business levels in the UK have remained steady for a long time.

We now have a really secure presence in the UK thanks to our partnership with Global Fire Equipment UK which is headed up by Matt Ketley.

Since January 2021, GFE UK has been the sole importer of all our products into the UK, and Matt and his team are doing a great job of representing the brand in the UK and growing our sales steadily.

Can you tell me about the acquisition of NIBBLE and the strategic decision behind this move?

The acquisition of NIBBLE was a strategic decision, driven by a longstanding relationship.

I’ve known the team behind NIBBLE for decades.

They were previously partners at a specialist emergency lighting company, CREATECH, which we acquired in 2018.

We maintained close contact with NIBBLE following the acquisition and have continued to be impressed by their innovative product range which very much complements our own range of panels.

But the strategy behind the acquisition is also very much aligned with our continued focus on R&D activities.

NIBBLE’s strengths lie in R&D, and they excel in creating innovative fire and security systems, including wired and wireless addressable systems, as well as a range of conventional products.

The biggest consideration was integrating their team into our structure, and I’m pleased so say that this process has gone very smoothly so far.

What steps is GFE taking to integrate sustainable practices into its products and overall business model?

GFE is fully committed to sustainability.

While others in the industry are aiming to become carbon neutral in 10 or 15 years, we’re determined to achieve this goal within the next five years.

We’ve already transitioned to exclusively electric vehicles for our company fleet, and we have recently installed 330 kilowatts of photovoltaic panels that generate more power than we need at any given time.

Building a sustainable and energy-efficient manufacturing facility was one of our key pre-requisites, and our on-site solar energy generation has jumped an impressive 600% compared to our former manufacturing plant.

There’s also a strong culture here of being mindful about not wasting resources.

It’s not just about being environmentally responsible; it makes sound commercial and financial sense, too.

Sometimes there’s inertia in the industry – a reluctance to change quickly while others don’t.

But at GFE, we’re proactive and fully committed to this fast-paced shift towards sustainability.

How do you see GFE’s acquisition of NIBBLE and its focus on sustainability influencing the company’s growth?

We need to think far beyond the immediate future.

The NIBBLE team aligns perfectly with our vision; they are as committed to sustainable practices as we are.

NIBBLE, being primarily an R&D company and not involved in production, brings an edge to our innovation efforts.

This synergy will be central to our growth and advancement in the coming years.

Integrating NIBBLE into GFE’s structure was a strategic move that provided NIBBLE with a manufacturing base.

This integration significantly boosts their capacity to innovate and develop solutions tailored to our market.

The potential for growth is substantial, more so than we’ve experienced before.

A key factor is their previous limited exposure; like CREATECH, NIBBLE was only really known within Portugal.

Now, with GFE, they have access to more than 90 countries.

This expanded reach allows us to leverage global contacts, enhancing the visibility and growth of their products, including NURIA, NIBBLE’s technologically advanced 1 – 4 loop analogue addressable fire alarm panel.

It’s an exciting time, as we open up new markets and opportunities for NIBBLE’s innovative solutions.

Currently, our primary focus is on enhancing our production capability.

My main priority at this juncture is ensuring that we grow at a sustainable pace.

We are very mindful of not overextending the business – rather we need to make sure every step we take is measured and within our capabilities.

Maintaining this balance is key to our ongoing success and growth.

This article was originally published in the April 2024 issue of International Fire & Safety Journal. To read your FREE digital copy, click here.

João Paulo Ajami, Managing Director of Global Fire Equipment (GFE) outlines the key factors to take into consideration when designing fire detection and alarm systems for hotels

Over the years, Global Fire Equipment (GFE) has designed, supplied and commissioned fire detection and alarm systems (FDASs) for a number of hotels globally, including some of the world’s largest hotel chains such as Radisson Blu, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts and Vila Galé.

Designing FDASs for hotels can be complex. Depending on their size, hotels can be occupied by hundreds if not thousands of people when the staff, guests and other visitors are taken into account.

This sheer volume of traffic and level of occupancy is a challenge, but you also have to take into account that hotels often cover vast areas and regularly incorporate high-rise buildings or different types of connected buildings such as spas, health clubs, meeting rooms, restaurants, bars and children’s clubs.

The combination of these factors means that designing FDASs for hotels presents a number of unique challenges.

Clarity of communication is key

The importance of clarity of communication about every fire event across the entire system cannot be underestimated when designing FDASs for hotels, and even more so for larger hotels.

To ensure the safety of a hotel’s occupants and staff, the fire detection and alarm control panels must be capable of continually monitoring each individual device on the system and logging every event.

This enables those responsible for monitoring and managing the system to take immediate action and respond – irrespective of whether there is a genuine fire event, a false/unwanted alarm or a fault condition.

The primary goal is to provide for timely alarm notifications and the safety of all occupants in accordance with an evacuation strategy which should be designed and tested to avoid panic and confusion in exit routes.

Addressing the challenge of false alarms

Although it is difficult to completely eradicate false or unwanted alarms, developing a robust emergency and management strategy will help to reduce instances as it will ensure minimum inconvenience in the event of an alarm.

Working alongside safety specialists and authorities to develop a Transmission Delay approach can also be useful to ensure there is a well-planned phased evacuation strategy, alongside a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP).

Thankfully there are far fewer incidences of false alarms today due to advances in fire detection technology and premises management.

Why a one size fits all approach doesn’t work

As every individual hotel presents its own issues that need specific management, a one size fits all approach simply doesn’t work.

When it comes to a hotel’s accommodation areas, each room has to be assessed for the type of guests in occupancy and fitted with adequate audible/intelligible alarms, visual Alarm Devices and, where necessary, vibrating devices.

However, when it comes to a hotel’s communal areas such as restaurants and bars, they need a dedicated wide area audible/intelligible alarm and visual alarm devices.

Each area of a hotel will have different hazards so the system also has to be designed to cope with varying levels of compliant sensitivity requirements, and each area must be protected with the right type of fire sensor.

During working hours, for example, a kitchen area should have heat detectors or multi-sensors configured for heat only.

Where the control and indicating equipment is positioned is also important.

In the event of a fire event, the hotel’s emergency team and the first responders arriving on scene must be able to access the event information in strategic locations throughout the premises.

This information can be delivered in a number of ways, including via SMS pager messages or the strategic placement of additional control and indicating equipment (repeaters).

One of the most common mistakes is the placement of detectors in a hotel bedroom’s entry hall, close to or in front of the bathroom door.

This can result in false alarms due to water vapour/steam ingress in the detector chamber.

In standard hotel rooms (from 15 to 30sqm), the ideal placement of a smoke detector is in the centre of the sleeping area.

The importance of resilient networking

A system survivability performance specification must be incorporated within the scope of works by system specifiers.

The design, installation and type of products used in the system should be compliant and verified against the system survivability time specified.

With the requirement of distributed systems, GFE has manufactured highly resilient networked FDASs since the company was established in 1994.

We use highly robust physical layers such as enhanced fire-resistant cabling and we insist on using fully redundant multi-master peer-to-peer network technology which can also be further enhanced in a mesh topology to increase the systems survivability rating.

With our current range of fire control panels, we can achieve distributed architectures with up to 128 loops and we can network 64 of those with our top layer of Building Management System (BMS) monitoring.

Our sophisticated networking capability and the cause-and-effect software analyses exactly what is going on across systems, providing invaluable information to aid decision making.

To conclude, designing FDASs for hotels is complex because a number of additional factors need to be taken into account, including high occupancy coupled with unfamiliarity, complex layouts, varied use spaces and compliance.

Case Study: GFE solutions chosen for Mövenpick Hotel Cebu in the Philippines

Fire detection solutions GFE have been chosen to protect guests, staff and visitors at the 5-star Mövenpick Hotel Cebu on Mactan Island in the Philippines.

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, part of the Accor S.A., are the sixth largest hospitality company worldwide.

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has over 80 properties globally, including hotels, resorts and Nile cruisers.

Located just 15 minutes away from Mactan Cebu International Airport, Mövenpick Hotel Cebu is a luxury Mediterranean-inspired beachfront hotel.

The hotel comprises 245 guest rooms with private balconies, along with meeting and event facilities, three restaurants, a selection of bars, a 24-hour gym, a swimming pool, a children’s club and a private beach with a club.

The hotel and grounds was severely damaged at the end of 2021 when the Philippines was hit by a Category 5 super typhoon, Odette, which swept through 11 of the country’s 17 regions, causing a trail of destruction, killing 410 people and causing damage estimated to have cost about £972m.

Although the hotel’s structure remained intact, its interior suffered extensive damage and the windows were all destroyed.

The hotel’s beach bar was swept away into the sea, and a 12,000-tonne ship was washed up onto the hotel’s private beach.

The extensive restoration work on the hotel has taken around two years, but today Mövenpick Hotel Cebu is once again welcoming guests from around the world.

The chosen 12-loop fire detection and alarm system comprises fire alarm control panels from GFE’s OCTO+ range, along with approximately 800 ZEOS AS-S smoke detectors, 37 ZEOS AS-H heat detectors, 71 manual call points, 65 sounders and 27 i/o modules.

The installation of the new fire detection system was completed in phases, allowing the refurbishment work to continue as quickly as practicable.

For further information on Global Fire Equipment, please visit www.globalfire-equipment.com.

This article was originally published in the April 2024 issue of International Fire & Safety Journal. To read your FREE digital copy, click here.