Nobel ensures Amazon warehouses ready for Christmas rush
Nobel Fire Systems has installed its K-Series fire suppression systems in two of Amazon’s UK warehouses at Gourock, Scotland and at Peterborough. The systems have been fitted in the staff restaurant kitchens and provide effective and dependable fire protection in both the canopy and extended ductwork.
There can be few applications where the reliable operation of the fire protection installation is more critical than in the warehouses of this $48 billion turnover company, and especially at a time leading up to the Christmas rush and one of the busiest times of the year for Amazon.
In the case of the Gourock warehouse, the installation came as a result of Allianz Insurance carrying out an insurance inspection and recommending that a suitable system be fitted to both the canopy and to the extended ductwork. Work to the canopy was carried out during the night by Nobel’s team of installation engineers to minimise any potential disruption.
The extended ductwork protection posed interesting challenges not least because in this case it extended 6m vertically and installation was completed using a cherry picker in order to reach the extreme points. The complexity of the ductwork protection installation meant that work took a week from start to completion and was carried out during the day by arrangement with the site facility manager at Amazon.
Although less complicated because there was no extended ductwork protection involved, the installation at Amazon’s Peterborough warehouse kitchen facility was just as critical given that in any commercial kitchen, hot oils and naked flames heighten the potential risk of fire which can in a worse situation lead to the endangering of lives and substantial damage to property. An additional factor is that these centers also provide warehousing and order-fulfillment for third-party sellers. Nobel worked closely with the specialist catering company, Maintaining Projects Ltd, on the installation.
Nobel’s ‘K-Series’ fire protection systems are engineered to meet the specific individual requirements of the kitchen being protected. The systems are electronically controlled with no mechanical moving parts. In addition to this, ‘K-Series’ is the only system on the market that takes into consideration the risk beyond the entrance to the duct. Only the ‘K-Series’ provides fire risk cover from the last nozzle at the extract plenum downstream along the entire length of the ductwork to the extract fan and/or point of extract to the external environment.
Where required, the K-Series system is able to meet the aesthetic, functional and complete safety remit that is now so often required. Unlike the majority of other fire suppression systems, K-Series requires no ugly pipework that needs to be boxed in, nor does it display cheap looking copper or brass plated protruding nozzles.