Firetech Projects recently completed phase one of a prestigious emergency evacuation system in record time at the BMW Rosslyn plant. BMW approached Firetech Projects and WEVS consulting engineers to design and supply an emergency evacuation system to cover the entire Rosslyn plant. The system was designed by Gino Mazzuchetti of WEVS and Johan Blignaut of Firetech Projects. This had to include the administration block, the BMW 3 Series production plant, the Land Rover section and the old and new spray shops, an area of approximately 190 000 m2.
Mr Patel of BMW explained this requirement was necessary to comply with ISO 14001 health and safety regulations. It was also stipulated that the system had to be installed and commissioned within three weeks.
The system was designed to provide seven standalone evacuation modular racks with subzones to drive a series of 15 and 25 W horn speakers and 5 W ceiling speakers throughout the complex. Firetech installed 40 km of cable, 240 speakers and 72 evacuation break-glass units in two weeks without delaying production. The third week was spent on commissioning, handover and training.
Phase two - control command centre
Phase two is an overall plan to provide control from a control command centre. Through a software driven package it will be possible to select any of the seven areas and either make announcements or transmit audio warning tones. The software will also monitor the status of each audio rack and report any failures. This phase is planned for early in the new millennium.
Steve Alberts is very proud of his installation team and he believes that this was made possible through proper project management, and the requisite cooperation between Firetech Projects, WEVS consulting engineers and BMW SA.
For details contact Firetech Projects on tel: (012) 667 2338 or fax: (012) 667 2335 or e-mail: [email protected]
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