Anheuser-Busch InBev is the world’s largest brewing company and InBev UK brews and markets some of the nation’s best known alcoholic beverages including Stella Artois, Beck’s, Budweiser, Brahma, Hoegaarden and Leffe. The company operates three breweries in the UK, one of which is based at Magor in Monmouthshire, Wales. As part of an ongoing fire safety programme, it was decided to invest in a new fire detection system. The previous system was nearly 15 years old and as well as producing a high level of unwanted alarms, it was becoming difficult to find replacement components for it.

Advanced Fire Systems Ltd, a British Fire Consortium (BFC) member that installs fire alarm systems throughout England and Wales assessed the current infrastructure and decided, that Hochiki Europe’s range of products would fit the bill because they provide a wide variety of detectors, beacons and sounders for the job.
Although the Magor site covers 60 acres, over recent years increased automation has meant that the number of employees there has reduced. With around 200 personnel now on-site and with some areas unoccupied for long periods of time, the system had to have high levels of reliability and should be able to provide immediate warning in the event of fire.

Advanced Fire Systems selected a system based around Hochiki’s Enhanced Systems Protocol (ESP). ESP is a robust total communications solution for intelligent fire detection and fully integrated systems. It has a multi-purpose structure that provides the flexibility and expansion to accommodate simple addressable systems through to sophisticated integrated building management and safety systems. Over 500 individual fire detection products have been installed across the site and are managed via 10 addressable panels, which can pinpoint the exact location of the detector that has been activated. The new system used the existing wiring infrastructure and every detector from the previous system had to be located and replaced, including over 100 devices installed within voids and false ceilings.

The installation also utilised a number of visual alarm devices (VADs). These are a requirement for areas of high ambient noise where people have to wear ear defenders to comply with health and safety legislation. As well as VADs, combined sounders and beacons from Hochiki’s portfolio were also installed in the brewing, filtration, bottling and kegging, and warehousing areas. Further work is scheduled to upgrade other areas of the Magor site and InBev’s Health and Safety Manager Antony Thomas is delighted with the installation. He concludes: "This is a 24/7 operation and therefore keeping people and property here safe is a serious issue. The new Hochiki system is working excellent – I’m delighted with its performance and look forward to using the company’s products in the future." [www.hochikieurope.com]