Finnish Fire Protection Fund’s Innovation Award goes to apartment fire extinguishing system co-designed by Caverion

Finnish Fire Protection Fund’s Innovation Award goes to apartment fire extinguishing system co-designed by Caverion

The Finnish Fire Protection Fund (Palosuojelurahasto) has given its 2014 Innovation Award to Pirkanmaa Safety Cluster for its novel apartment-specific fire extinguishing equipment intended in particular for apartments for people with special needs. Caverion was one of the main developers of the system.

The recipient of the Innovation Award was published today at a rescue seminar held at the 2014 Safety-Security-Rescue Fair in Jyväskylä. Caverion will present the fire extinguishing system at the fair.

The apartment-specific fire extinguishing system improves the safety of elderly people in particular and reduces damage in case of fire. The system limits and suppresses the fire and provides time for the rescue of the occupant. The system not only helps to reduce personal injuries but also significantly reduces damage to property. An alarm is automatically transmitted either to a 24/7 control room or to the fire and rescue service.

“Caverion aims to develop innovative and advanced solutions and product/service concepts. The automatic apartment-specific fire extinguishing system is a novel solution which adds to the safety of physically challenged occupants and enables people to avoid having to move to an institution. The equipment has been approved by the authorities and can be installed in any apartment without a building permit and can also be transferred from one apartment to another. In addition to the technical details, we have paid a lot of attention to the size and design of the equipment so that it can be placed in the apartment like any other piece of furniture. The system can be installed in a room in an institution or in an ordinary apartment,” says director Jukka Suoja from Caverion.

The development work for the novel fire extinguishing equipment began about two years ago and a prototype system meeting the requirements of the apartment sprinkler standard was installed in summer 2013 in Voimarinne innovation centre in Sastamala. The system will become available in the autumn. Caverion has applied for a patent for the equipment.   

The equipment responds to high temperature and, upon activation, uses a specific amount of water.  It uses a 300–400-litre tank filled from the water mains. The sprinkler goes off when the ambient temperature reaches the trigger value of 68 ºC. The system meets the requirements of the SFS 5980 class 2 apartment sprinkler standard.

The Pirkanmaa Safety Cluster aims to promote the objectives of the national internal safety programme and develop solutions for improving the safety of homes of elderly people as well as for preventing residential fire fatalities.

Pictures of the equipment can be found in material bank: 

http://imagebank.caverion.com/check_a.php?hash=6d6961b355460beebe4d78367f13cada

For additional information, please contact:

Kirsi Hemmilä, Communications Manager, Caverion, tel. +358 50 390 0941, kirsi.hemmila@caverion.fi 

Distribution: NASDAQ OMX, major media, www.caverion.com

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