Industrial emergency warning systems

Emergency management system for a large production plant

For decades, we have designed, manufactured, installed, commissioned, and maintained warning systems at large industrial plants throughout Europe and the Middle East.

For a large production plant in Saudi Arabia, we were tasked with the design, delivery, and integration of new emergency management. The requirement was to provide a new siren warning system that should be audible indoor and outdoor throughout the plant.

We started out by making a site survey to define the background noise level and inspect the existing warning systems installed. The survey showed that the production plant already had a public address system in the admin building, a paging system in the production area, and a fire and gas detection system throughout the plant. However, there was no working outdoor siren system.

The challenge was to design an integrated emergency management system with the ability to detect hazardous conditions and subsequently warn the areas where employees could be at risk. Moreover, the system had to be able to inform the employees about the requested action to be taken in order to counter the hazard and/or escape the hazardous situation.

The solution we presented to the plant management consisted of a state of the art general alarm system for outdoor warning combined with strobe lights in areas where the background noise from the production units would have exceeded the sound from the siren speakers.

We also recommended reusing the existing indoor PA system and paging system. Adding a Giant Voice control center would enable a single operator to issue a timely, effective, and informative warning when needed.

The plant management agreed to this solution as it fulfilled – and exceeded – their requirement for a visual and audible warning. Additionally, it proved to be a cost-effective solution, as a better overall warning system solution was achieved through the integration of existing equipment in combination with new outdoor TWS295 sirens from the HSS product range.

The actual installation of the new emergency management system was relatively simple due to the fact that most of the customised configuration was carried out before the Factory Acceptance Test. Also, the production plant was able to continue work in the process areas during installation, as HSS reused indoor PA and paging systems that were already present in the production units. Following the installation, we were informed by the plant management that the system worked with a very high satisfaction level – and that it would ultimately help save lives.