Detection designed differently
Iain Hoey
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C-TEC’s Marketing Manager, Andy Green, discusses why the CAST-PRO, its new range of fire detection and alarm devices, is the real deal
Conceived over a decade ago, enhanced numerous times along the way and now delivered, CAST-PRO is a British designed and built, fully EN 54 parts 3, 5, 7, 17, 23, 29 and 31 certified heat, smoke and CO fire detector with a tone or voice sounder and onboard visual alarm device.
Packed full of features, many of them patented, our comprehensive beta testing regime confirmed to us some time ago that CAST-PRO doesn’t just reduce installation costs, it reduces false alarms effectively, detects real fires reliably and indicates true alarm conditions decisively.
With third-party certification now complete, we are delighted to announce CAST-PRO is available to purchase today.
What’s so special about CAST-PRO?
At the heart of the CAST-PRO design is the MASC™ miniature advanced smoke detection chamber.
Featuring computer designed airflow layers and a revolutionary non-focal non-linear prismatic angular bandpass filter (pictured) which facilitates multiple path detection, it was specifically designed to allow space for reliable Heat and CO detection, a 92 dB(A) tone or 86 dB(A) voice sounder AND a C-3-9.4 visual alarm device – all in the same attractive, compact device.
The patented MASC™ smoke detection chamber filters out unwanted light caused by contamination but directs wanted light from smoke particles using multiple paths directly towards CAST-PRO’s light sensor.
Contamination ridges absorb stray light and serve as an effective dust trap and parabolic reflector to reflect light from contamination away from the sensor.
This unique approach means lots of contamination can be tolerated before drift compensation needs to work, significantly increasing the life of the detector.
This, combined with CAST-PRO’s powerful false alarm rejection algorithms, which recognise non-fire events but still track real fire signals means false alarms are massively reduced whilst ensuring real alarms are acknowledged quickly, especially if CAST-PRO’s additional fire sensing functions are utilised.
What else can CAST-PRO detect?
As well as detecting smoke, our fully loaded CAST-PRO device features heat and CO fire detection allowing it to operate in one of 12 different modes (see Table 1) and for its operation to be tailored, not just to the environment, but to specific risks.
CAST-PRO is inherently flexible and can provide everything you need to satisfy the fire safety requirements of today’s complex multi-purpose buildings.
CAST-PRO’s Test mode does not change a detector’s settings so devices do not need reconfiguring when testing is complete.
Whilst testing is underway our CAST-PRO devices will continue to work in their normal detection mode, so if a real fire occurs elsewhere on the Zone being tested a full alarm will trigger.
This ensures the site is always protected properly.
Indeed, this feature actually facilitated the speedy extinguishing of a real fire in a zone under test at one of our beta test sites!
ENVISION Enabled
As well as being compatible with C-TEC’s ZFP CAST protocol touchscreen-controlled addressable fire panel, CAST-PRO is fully compatible with C-TEC’s powerful ENVISION Cloud-based IoT software.
Combined with the features detailed above, ENVISION elevates CAST-PRO to greater levels of protection, delivering true, verifiable, live data on the status of your CAST-PRO devices – fires, faults, tests, pre-alarms, investigation periods started and more – direct to your smart phone or desktop.
ENVISION makes testing and commissioning a breeze allowing device names to be updated, sounders to be sounded, VADs to be switched on and more, all whilst standing alongside a device and remotely from the fire panel.
Test reports are also available at the touch of the button.
