Thanks to their strength and resilience, polyester-glass and epoxide-glass laminates have become extremely popular with yacht manufacturers. Working with these materials, however, presents a challenge - specifically, a risk of fire due to the presence of inflammable solvents, such as acetone, combined with a dusty environment that can cause problems for fire detection systems. To meet this challenge, Polish yacht manufacturer Delphia Yachts turned to Bosch Security Systems, and has installed more than 200 of the company's flush-mount Series 500 Smoke Detectors to protect its valuable manufacturing facilities.

Based in Olecko, Poland, Delphia Yachts is one of Poland's foremost manufacturers of yachts and motorboats, and exports its broad range of luxury products all over the world. The shipyard consists of three manufacturing workshops, a warehouse connected to offices, and a gatehouse. All areas, especially the workshops, were recently equipped with smoke detectors to protect the company's property and assure the staff's safety.

A Dusty Problem

Since the manufacturing process at Delphia generates a large amount of dirt and dust, the company had a special need for smoke and fire detectors guaranteeing fail-safe operation even in such a challenging environment.
The significant risk of fire due to the presence of highly flammable materials used for production, such as wood and acetone as well as packaging material like foils, meant that the company needed highly reliable and sensitive detectors. At the same time, however, since the manufacturing process generates a large amount of dirt and dust, including gel-coated dust in some areas, to avoid false alarms in these dusty and dirty surroundings, the detectors should not easily attract fibers and also had to provide effortless cleaning.
Moreover, it was important for the sensors to be able to differentiate dust from smoke, which more or less ruled out traditional smoke detectors.

Dual Function Detection

To meet Delphia's demanding requirements, Gdańsk-based installers PW Janrom chose the Bosch 500 Series Smoke Detectors and installed more than 200 throughout the manufacturing workshops and offices, all connected to a Bosch 5000 Series Modular Fire Panel. Several other peripherals, such as the 420 Series Fire Detectors, have also been installed at Delphia Yachts in less exposed areas.
The 500 Series detectors use a virtual smoke measuring chamber by monitoring two independent light areas in open space. This makes them extremely reliable as the two independent light areas assure reliable and fail-safe operation. In addition, the detector's lens and software prevent it from reacting to stray light and an anti-masking feature tells the fire panel if the detector lens gets covered. The versions chosen for the Delphia Yachts solution also include a gas sensor for detecting carbon monoxide. A major benefit of this system is that the sensitivity level of the chamber increases when carbon monoxide is detected, making the unit equal to or better than standard commercial photoelectric smoke chambers, while significantly reducing false alarms when the gas is not present.

Maintaining Appearances

In addition, since there is no optical chamber inside the smoke detectors, they do not protrude from the ceiling. So the smooth, flush-mount surface does not gather the usual visible dirt in rooms with high dust build-up, making the sensors easy to clean and saving service time and costs. When the face plate lens does get dirty, an internal contamination sensor automatically informs the control panel that cleaning is required when a certain threshold is exceeded - which is as easy as wiping the flat face plate off with a soft cloth. And if a detector requires more extensive servicing, with minimal effort it can be exchanged utilizing a new push/remove system.