DetectoTalk

Not long ago, a major project was completed at JTI (JT International Germany GmbH) that perfectly demonstrated the performance capabilities of CON-Xnet. At the JTI site in Trier, a plant at the cutting edge of global technology, all production steps from raw tobacco storage to the production of various tobacco products are brought together under one roof. More than 50 billion cigarettes are produced here every year and are sold not just in Germany but all over the world. In addition, some 50,000 tonnes of semi-finished products are exported from here to sister factories all over the world, which rely on these deliveries for their production activities. 

Daniel Carl, Security & Communication Systems Project Manager, kindly agreed to chat with interviewer Mike Bohl (Detectomat Sales Director) about the project.

M. Bohl: How did the initial situation look at the start of the project?

D. Carl: When it came to modernising the fire alarm technology, the main task was to replace the existing fire alarm system, which was made up of various control panels and fire detectors, and to construct a state-of-the-art fire alarm system in its place. The first step was to decide how we were going to replace 15 networked fire alarm control panels comprising some 4500 devices, the connected fire brigade peripherals and a management system.

M. Bohl: Which solution did you opt for?

D. Carl: Our aim was not to come up with a one-off solution that only applied to this particular project. Instead, we wanted to develop a practical solution that could also be used by other fire alarm specialists on different projects, so we created a cost-effective and technologically optimised concept in order to achieve this

We designed our plan of action in such a way that the modernisation did not involve any major changes within the meaning of DIN 14675. For this reason, we did not need to carry out any large-scale changes to bring the system in line with the latest version of the relevant standards. Of course, all the software and hardware used meets the requirements of EN54/DIN 14675 and has VdS approval too.

M. Bohl: Which Detectomat components did you select and install?

D. Carl: Our solution involved a CON-Xnet ring bus network with 15 of the DC3500 fire alarm control panels and the corresponding Detectomat fire detectors, which were put into operation incrementally.