Partrix Fire is a fire-protection company specialising in developing aspirating smoke detectors (ASDs). Its core R&D team has more than 20 years of R&D and manufacturing experience in the industry and has been committed to providing customers with high-performance, very early smoke detectors.
ASDs are widely used in critical infrastructure since they are highly sensitive to fire-combustion particles released in the incipient stage of fire. ASDs have proven to be a reliable solution to various very early fire alarm applications in a relatively clean environment, such as semiconductor manufacturing, data centres and electrical power facilities.
With innovative particle-charging technology, PNED successfully detects nano-smoke particles that are invisible to the optical measuring device. By extending the minimum detection range of nanoparticles, PNED allows the nano-smoke particles to be completely exposed to the detector at the low-temperature pyrolysis phase of the incipient fire.
Relying on professional R&D and project management teams, Partrix Fire obtains excellent product reliability design, core components evaluation, and production management control, promising long-term and stable operation performance and ease of maintenance.
Based on the particle-surface-charging mechanism, particle-charging technology allows charges on the surface of particles to be measured and analysed accurately, supporting PNED to identify the early fire threat and generate corresponding fire alarm signals.
The total charges on the surface of particles depend on the particle characteristics such as surface area, concentration, equivalent mobility diameter, etc. Nano-smoke particles (<1 μm) carry fewer charges since electrons repel each other, preventing additional charge attachment to the particle surface. Oppositely, micro-smoke particles (>1 μm) allow more charges attachment as they have sizeable surface area; thus, they are capable of carrying a large number of charges.
Generally speaking, incipient fire consists of pyrolysis and smouldering phases. Materials release nano-smoke particles (<150 nm) at very high concentrations through a low-temperature pyrolysis process (approximately 100 °C).
In contrast, a particular range of materials releases micro-smoke particles in very low concentrations through the same pyrolysis process.
For nano-smoke particles less than 150nm in diameter, the particle is too small to provide sufficient scattering light signal for fire detection using optical technology.
For micro-smoke particles with low concentrations, the particle counting ASD system is limited by the insufficient measurement of the particle concentration. Sometimes the fire threat can be easily underestimated since the particle-counting ASD system only counts the number of particles regardless of the other characteristics.
Unique particle-charging technology provides great advantages. By analysing the charging characteristics of particles, PNED can extend the detection range of nanoparticles past the limit of the optical detection system. Thus, the particle-charging technology, in fact, redefines a new limit of very early fire warning, significantly shortening the warning time of very early fire alarms from the smouldering to the pyrolysis phases of the incipient fire.
PNED overcomes the drawback of the particle-counting ASD system by detecting micro-smoke particles with low concentrations, providing excellent detection performance of smoke particles released by various types of materials.
In recent years, ASDs attracted increasing attention in cleanroom applications. Partrix launched an advanced PNED model for clean environments with ultrahigh smoke sensitivity. The advanced PNED model is not only specialised for detecting fire threats but also well suited for monitoring the air quality. It precisely identifies the upper boundary of Class 8, Class 7, and even Class 6 cleanliness of ISO cleanroom cleanliness standards. It provides users with additional cleanliness monitoring in real-time.
For more information, email info@partrixfire.com
