Recycling Facilities

Statistics show that a recycling plant faces a fire incident in average every second year. Fire protection consequently is a critical element in the operation of a recycling plant. A fire protection scheme includes that staff is thoroughly trained and stays alert to react in a professional manner to a fire alarm. False alarms undermine the alertness of the staff, which in turn can lead to false reactions in case of a real fire. False alarms and its consequences are therefore a particular risk that results from poor fire protection design and/or inadequate fire detection products and must be addressed in the fire protection design.

Securiton’s industrial grade beam detection products, SecuriBeam ILIA and ILIA Pro, are the perfect solution to the detection challenges of recycling facilities. Highly reliable and offering a long service life and relative low maintenance thanks to an array of accessories designed for a dusty environment, SecuriBEam ILIA senses both flames and smoke and can effectively distinguish smoke from dust.

Causes of fires in recycling facilities

• Spontaneous ignition of waste material
• Smouldering waste material delivered to the stock
• Cutting or shearing containers, in particular when they contain compressed flammable gases
• Hot works such as cutting, welding and soldering
• Overheating and/or flying sparks resulting from malfunctions in machinery (conveyor belts, shredders, vehicles, etc.)
• Bad housekeeping (smoking, maintenance of equipment, etc.)

Challenges for reliable fire detection in recycling facilities

• Highly dynamic environment with sudden changes of the dust level (loading unloading of trucks)
• Large, partly open space
• High temperature variation
• High variation in airflow
• Diesel exhaust fumes
• Build-up of foggy clouds at ambient temperatures below 10°C
• Birds and other flying objects (plastic bags, wrappings, packaging, etc.)

Key benefits of reliable fire detection solutions for recycling facilities

• False alarms are reduced to an absolute minimum
• Maintenance intervals are at an acceptable frequency
• Fires are detected at an early stage
• The loss prevention is at a maximum and the risk for business interruption at a minimum
• The cost for maintenance is commensurate