Victaulic supplies Vortex fire suppression system to data centres
Fire protection for several sites of Canberra Data Centres in Australia is provided by a Victaulic Vortex system that uses nitrogen and water as complementary extinguishing agents. The Vortex 1500 fire-suppression system is provided as a base service to all the data centres’ clients.
It was installed by Wormald Fire Systems, which worked closely with Fire Protection Technologies, the international distributor of Vortex in Australia.
With nearly zero wetting, the system is ideally suited to the requirements of the facilities. Even small, smouldering fires within racks can be detected and extinguished with negligible water exposure for components or hardware.
Peter Henson, chief technology office with Canberra Data Centres, said, ‘The ‘stand-up’ time from an incident to business as usual is significantly reduced compared to traditional fire suppression. In testing, Victaulic has demonstrated there is no damage or residue following deployment.’
Since fires are extinguished in open, naturally ventilated areas, unlike other systems, maintaining room integrity is not essential and annual fan testing of the enclosures is not required. This made installation considerably easier, and there was no disruption to ongoing data-centre operations.’
