Over 5km of FP PLUS fire resistant cable from Prysmian has been installed in Edinburgh College of Art as part of a significant upgrade to fire protection systems in two of the Lauriston Campus buildings.
The University of Edinburgh’s plans for an overhaul of fire protection at the College of Art to ensure fire detection and fire alarm systems are providing adequate protection included a review of existing measures, leading to the decision to replace all the alarms throughout the 1970’s Hunter Building and 1960’s Architecture Building. The project involved the installation of a state-of-the-art fire alarm and voice evacuation system with enhanced fire resistant cable.
Consulting Engineer Kevin Keenan from The Keenan Consultancy had no hesitation in specifying the FP PLUS cable. “We have been specifying the FP products for many years. In this instance we used the top-of-the-range FP PLUS because it is the highest performing cable on the market and the University of Edinburgh wanted that assured level of performance.”
The combination of Prysmian’s unique enhanced Insudite insulation material with a low smoke and zero halogen outer sheath provide safe, robust performance with flexibility. It is most commonly used for fire alarm and emergency lighting circuits as defined by BS5839 series and BS5266-1 and approved by third parties BASEC and LPCB for this use.
“We particularly needed the cable to be flexible in order to accommodate the irregular shape of the building” Kevin Keenan continued. Contractor Chris Pullen of JG Mackintosh is always happy to work with the product.
“We use FP products all the time and they are very easy to work with. For example, while the cable is very flexible – allowing for easy fixing – it holds its shape when you’re laying it out rather than springing back into a coil. It’s also easier than others when it comes to stripping back the ends. These sound like minor issues, but on site they really do save time – and that’s important when you’re working to tight margins.”
The Hunter and Architecture Buildings are the first phase of an ongoing upgrading project across the Lauriston Campus. This phase of the project is due to complete in September 2015.
