Marine Heat Detector, for Office Buildings

S.S.SON CONTROLS Marine Heat Detector units are the heart of many Fire Protection Systems. These highly reliable devices have been a standard of the industry for over 45 years. Many hundreds of thousands of these units are now in use controlling the release of fire suppression agents such as FM200, CO2, water, foam, wet or dry chemicals. In some systems the device is used as an ALARM device. to sense overheat or fire, and alert personnel. In other systems, it is used as a RELEASE device, to sense fire and actuate fire attack systems.

S.S.SON CONTROLS Marine  Heat Detector units have met with wide acceptance because they are designed with RATE COMPENSATION. This provides a unique advantage over both fixed temperature and rate-of-rise types of detectors because only theS.S.SON CONTROLS Marine Heat Detector unit accurately senses the surrounding air temperature regardless of the fire growth rate. At precisely the predetermined danger point, the system is activated.

Fixed temperature detectors must be completely heated to alarm temperature and therefore a disastrous lag in time may occur with a fast rate fire. Rate-of-rise devices, on the other hand, are triggered by the rate of increase in ambient temperature and are subject to false alarms caused by harmless, transient thermal gradients such as the rush of warm air from process ovens.

The secret of the unit's sensitivity is in the design. The outer shell is made of a rapidly expanding alloy which closely follows changes in surrounding air temperature. The inner struts are made of a lower expanding alloy. Designed to resist thermal energy absorption and sealed inside the shell, the struts follow temperature changes more slowly.

A slow rate fire will heat the shell and struts together. At the "set point", the unit will trigger, actuating the alarm or releasing the extinguishant.
A transient rush of warm air up to 40ºF /min. may expand the shell, but not enough to trigger the unit. By ignoring transient warm air excursions, the S.S.SON CONTROLS Marine  Heat Detector  unit virtually eliminates false alarms prevalent with rate-of-rise devices.

If a fast rate fire starts, the shell will expand rapidly. The struts will close, actuating the alarm or releasing the agent. The faster the fire rate of growth, the sooner the S.S.SON CONTROLS Marine  Heat Detector unit will react.