The Kitemark is one of the world's premier symbols of product or service quality. With its unrivalled quality and safety benefits, the Kitemark symbol delivers peace of mind. Katie Harrison explains.

Fire protection products are an intrinsic part of everyone’s daily life. In offices and factories fire alarm systems are monitoring the environment with extinguishing systems, fire extinguishers and hose reels ready for action. It is therefore crucial that when this equipment is required, it performs reliably. Through appropriate, independent, third party certification, users have the assurance that products in place will operate and perform as claimed.

The Kitemark has long been understood as one of the world’s premier symbols of product or service quality. It is widely trusted and chosen by business and consumer buyers for its unrivalled quality and safety benefits. As the demands of fire safety legislation and increased liability risks impact all sectors, demanding Kitemark quality in any purchasing activities will bring significant benefits to you, your organisation and your community.

For building owners, managers and specifiers the Kitemark can:

• Demonstrate best practice: the essence of Kitemark schemes is the continual assessment which ensures that products or services are regularly reassessed so you can be sure that they will perform consistently and reliably
• Achieve best value: buying quality, reliable fire safety products or services is always the best long term option, as it saves you the cost of replacement and so allows you to demonstrate that you have spent money wisely
• Save time and money: Kitemark licence holders need to have robust quality systems in place to help them reduce or eliminate excessive cost and waste. As such Kitemark products and services can be more competitive on price
• Faster decision making: selecting Kitemark fire safety products or services can help you be reassured that they will deliver safety, quality and consistency. Because they are all assessed before receiving their licence and they have robust quality systems in place, you will know at the outset that they will meet your specification criteria – saving you time in checking.

Conversely, the Kitemark allows manufacturers to:

• Prove their commitment to delivering safe, quality products
• Make their products or services stand out from the competition
• Access wider markets: purchasing professionals and organisations are increasingly demanding Kitemark quality products and services to help them meet their obligations
• Increase profitability: a Kitemark scheme is a blueprint for better, more efficient business performance and fewer mistakes
• Increase customer confidence and satisfaction: providing quality, safe and reliable products will help you retain existing and attract new customers as well as generating recommendations.

BSI provides testing and certification services for the following fire safety products and services:

Control and indicating equipment

Fire alarm control panels or control and indicating equipment (CIE) is the main ‘switchboard’ of the fire detection and alarm system. An addressable CIEwill display a wide variety of information about a fire/event including the exact location, while the less sophisticated conventional CIEwill only display the general area of fire activation.

Fire extinguisher panels

Fire extinguishing panels or electrical automatic control and delay devices (ECD) are used to protect specific high risk or high asset value areas such as computer suites. When the ECD receives the fire condition the information is processed and any necessary delays taken into account before activating the system through the use of CO2, inert gas or halocarbon gas to flood the protected area.

 

Power supplies

Power supplies are used as a part of, or independent of, the control and indicating equipment. They can be used by any application in a fire system that requires an additional power supply, such as aspirating smoke detectors.

Input/output devices

These devices are used to add extra functionality to a fire system, acting as an interface between the fire system and its peripheral devices during an alarm condition. For example, these devices can operate magnetic door holders on fire doors, initiate plant shutdown and activate smoke dampers etc.

Smoke/heat and multi-criteria detectors

Photoelectric/opticalsmoke sensors use a Light Emitting Diode (LED) and a photodiode sensing element. Smoke particles entering the chamber cause the LED light to scatter, thus triggering an alarm status. Ionisationsmoke detectors use an ionisation chamber: smoke particles entering the chamber attach themselves to the ions, impeding the generated current flow and causing the alarm to trigger.

Sounders

Sounders vary in size and shape and the sounder output varies in level, frequency range and temporal pattern, but all must comply with the requirements of the same product standard. There are two types of sounder – outdoor or indoor use. The majority of sounders are designed for connection to fire alarm system control panels and are usually rated to operate from a 24V supply. There is, however, variation across different fire alarm systems and fire alarm equipment manufacturers.

Voice alarms

As a vital component of a voice alarm system, loudspeakers provide intelligible warnings that transmit messages to people in a building where an emergency situation is occurring. By giving clear audible instructions, occupants can be safely managed or evacuated and and voice alarms can help to reduce evacuation time. With the introduction of the new European standard for voice alarm control and indicating equipment in 2008, manufacturers of these products need to conform to this standard with the opportunity to enhance their product reputation and gain market advantage through Kitemark certification.

Visual alarms

Previously, these alarms were only used to back up the traditional audible alarm systems but now, in buildings where there are hearing impaired occupants or where there are high levels of noise, a visual alarm could be considered as important as audible versions – depending on a number of factors and a risk assessment. In May 2010, EN 54-23:2010 was published which defines the requirements, test methods and performance of these devices.

Manual call points

Whether addressable or conventional, the basic principle of operating a manual call point (MCP) is the breaking of an element and pressing a button. The control and indicating equipment (CIE) interprets the signal from the button as a fire alarm signal and enters fire alarm mode.

Portable fire extinguishers

Ideally all firefighting should be left to the professionals. However, there may be instances when a fire discovered at the very early stages can be quickly put out with a suitable fire extinguisher. Prompt action can prevent the fire escalating into a full scale incident. It is crucial that extinguishers are all tested to the appropriate standards and that they carry the correct certification marks.

Water mist systems

Water mist systems operate in a similar way to standard sprinkler systems but instead of a heavy spray, they produce a fine mist of water. The steam which is produced effectively uses the energy of the fire against itself, by cooling down hot objects and creating an atmosphere not supportive to combustion.

Emergency lighting

Emergency luminaries provide a degree of illumination in the event of a power cut or fire. Most importantly, if sited correctly, the emergency light will provide a degree of lighting in what could be a smoke filled property, giving an indication of the location of an exit or simply provide orientation to allow the occupant to determine his or her location in the building.

Domestic heat/smoke/CO alarms

The principles employed for the detection of smoke, heat and CO are generally the same as those used in commercial detectors. However, due to the nature of domestic dwellings, smoke, heat and CO alarms are provided with a test button. By pressing this button, the alarm’s sensing element and circuitry are subjected to a simulated fire alarm condition.

Installation and maintenance of fire detection and alarm systems

The Chief Fire Officers Association now strongly recommends third party certification by a UKAS accredited organisation for companies who design, install, commission and maintain fire detection and alarm systems. The four modules of the SP203 Kitemark scheme are: system design; installation; commissioning; and handover and maintenance.

CE marking

The majority of fire products sold in the European Union must bear the CE mark, the sign of compliance to the EU Directive. BSI can offer a comprehensive range of testing and certification for this, enabling manufacturers to confidently and legally affix the CE mark to their products. Although CE marking is a conformity mark it is not a quality mark and should not be interpreted as such.

Product testing

With a worldwide reputation as an independent testing authority, BSI can not only test a wide range of products within fire safety directives, both to International and National standards, but also can work with manufacturers to create new technical specifications which can be used to test their products.

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