Air-sampling mania

HARTFORD, Conn.—In what appears to be something of a trend, UTCFS has joined the ranks of fire manufacturers who are adding to their air-sampling smoke detection offerings this year, introducing its new AIR-Intelligence Smoke Detection System.

UTCFS made this announcement at this year's NFPA show in Las Vegas. SimplexGrinnell also announced a new product and System Sensor announced that it was getting into the air-sampling business.

UTCFS's new products are aimed at a variety of large and small applications with various environments, such as data centers, textile mills, warehouses and museums, said Gerry Connolly, GM, Global Fire Protection Systems-AIR-Intelligence Smoke Detection System. “It can cover from very small applications 2,500 square feet up to 20,000 square feet,” he said.

It can be localized at a piece of equipment, a data processing rack in a data closet, and networked with other devices, for example. It can be used for concealed detection for aesthetic reasons in a historic building or it can be concealed in an environment where a standard detector would interfere with other operations, such as a test center for airplanes.

“What's unique about the product is that it's highly sensitive,” he said. “Providing very early warning up to 30 minutes before smoke would appear,” Connolly added.

More significant, however, “is that it can be made less sensitive” in places where there's dust or dirt in the background. “It covers the widest range from ultra-high sensitivity to less sensitive in more extreme environments.” A feature that's important in reducing false alarms, Connolly said, is an artificial intelligence software that allows you to automatically adjust the alarm point. This feature continually monitors the environment and adjusts the detector's sensitivity accordingly.