Sensor integration in mechanical fire suppression systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10478651-B2
Application number	US-201615382322-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2016
Priority date	Dec 16, 2016
Publication date	Nov 19, 2019
Grant date	Nov 19, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods for remote monitoring of mechanical fire suppression systems are provided. For example, some embodiments generally provide for a smart fire suppression system with integrated sensors and communication technology to monitor the current state of the fire suppression system and notify various monitoring platforms, service providers, equipment manufacturers and/or others of the current state. In some embodiments, various sensors (e.g., micro switches) can be used to detect and report the status of the cartridge, activation status of the system, and/or the status of the detection line. Additional sensors and actuators may be also be included within the smart fire suppression system to allow monitoring of different states (e.g., temperature) and control the appliance and/or building utilities.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fire suppression system comprising:
a nozzle;
a cartridge containing a pressurized gas;
an agent tank coupled to the cartridge and having stored within a fire suppression agent;
distribution piping providing a conduit that allows the fire suppression agent when expelled from the agent tank to flow from the agent tank to the nozzle;
a release assembly coupled to the cartridge,
wherein, upon activation of the release assembly, the cartridge releases the pressurized gas causing the fire suppression agent to expel from the agent tank through the distribution piping to the nozzle;

one or more sensors to measure a current state at the nozzle, the cartridge, the agent tank, or the release assembly;
a communications module to receive measurements of the current state from the one or more sensors and transmit the current state to a remote monitoring platform, and receive a bypass signal to suppress an alarm within the fire suppression system; and
wherein, in response to the bypass signal, alarm signals are prevented from being generated and transmitted during a period of time.

2. The fire suppression system of claim 1 , wherein the alarm notifications include internal and external alarm signals and the communications module is further configured to:
receive an activation signal to activate the alarm; and
remove, in response to the activation signal, the suppression of the alarm notifications prior to the period of time expiring.

3. The fire suppression system of claim 1 , wherein the communications module is further configured to:
determine whether the one or more sensors indicate that the fire suppression system is fully functional; and
generate, upon determining that the fire suppression system is not fully functional, an alert that the period of time the alarm notifications will be suppressed is about to expire.

4. The fire suppression system of claim 1 , wherein the communications module uses a short-range network to communicate the measurements of the current state from the one or more sensors, and the system further comprises a gateway to receive, using the short-range network, communications from the communications module and transmit using a cellular or IP-based network the current state to the remote monitoring platform.

5. The fire suppression system of claim 1 , further comprising a local memory to record the current state from the one or more sensors over a period of time and wherein the communications module transmits the current state over the period of time in batches.

6. The fire suppression system of claim 1 , wherein the release assembly is coupled to a detection line and the one or more sensors include:
a first micro switch to determine whether the cartridge is installed;
a second micro switch associated with the release assembly to identify whether the release assembly is loaded or unloaded; and
a spring-based mechanism to measure the weight of the agent tank indicating whether sufficient fire suppression agent is present within the agent tank.

7. The fire suppression system of claim 1 , wherein the nozzle is associated with a temperature sensor to measure a temperature at the nozzle.

8. The fire suppression system of claim 1 , further comprising an application running on a computing device, the application comprising:
a graphical user interface generation module to generate a graphical user interface allowing a first user of the application to view the current state from the one or more sensors; and
a suppression module to generate signals that when received by the communications module suppress alarm notifications during a period of time.

9. The fire suppression system of claim 1 , wherein the nozzle is fixed relative to an appliance.

10. The fire suppression system of claim 1 , wherein the nozzle is one of multiple nozzles.

11. The fire suppression system of claim 10 , further comprising multiple independent zones each having one or more of the multiple nozzles located therein.

12. The fire suppression system of claim 11 , wherein each of the multiple nozzles is associated with an appliance within a vehicle, a wheel well of the vehicle, a storage compartment of the vehicle, a hydraulic system of the vehicle, or a passenger compartment of the vehicle.

13. A fire suppression system comprising:
a nozzle;
an agent tank having stored within a fire suppression agent;
distribution piping providing a conduit that allows the fire suppression agent when expelled from the agent tank to flow from the agent tank to the nozzle;
a release assembly that, upon activation, causes the fire suppression agent to expel from the agent tank through the distribution piping to the nozzle;
one or more sensors to measure a current state at the nozzle, the agent tank, or the release assembly; and
a local processing unit comprising:
a processor;
a memory; and
a communications module, under the control of the processor, configured to receive measurements of the current state from the one or more sensors, and determine, based on the measurements from the one or more sensors, an operational status of the fire suppression system, and transmit at least the operational status of the fire suppression system to an external device;

the communications module further configured to receive a bypass signal from the external device, wherein in response to receiving the bypass signal, the communications module is configured to suppress an alarm within the fire suppression system allowing a technician to service the fire suppression system; and
wherein, in response to receiving the bypass signal, alarm signals are prevented from being generated and transmitted during a period of time.

14. The fire suppression system of claim 13 , wherein the external device includes a mobile device of a technician that is running a mobile application configured to receive the operational status and present a notification indicative of the operational status on a display of the mobile device.

15. The fire suppression system of claim 14 ,
wherein the notification indicative of the operational status presented on the display of the mobile device identifies the fire suppression system as under maintenance.

16. The fire suppression system of claim 15 , wherein the communications module is also configured to:
receive, from the mobile application, an activation signal to activate the alarm,
wherein the activation signal is generated by the mobile application in response to an input from the technician indicating that the maintenance is complete;

determine, in response to the activation signal, whether the one or more sensors indicate that the fire suppression system is fully functional;
generate, upon determining that the fire suppression system is not fully functional, an alert on the mobile application that the system is not fully functional; and
remove, in response to determining that the fire suppression system is fully functional, the suppression of the alarm notifications prior to the period of time expiring.

17. The fire suppression system of claim 13 , wherein the release assembly is coupled to a detection line and the one or more sensors include:
a micro switch associated with the release assembly to identify whether the release assembly is loaded or unloaded; and
a spring-based mechanism to measure the weight of the agent tank indicating whether sufficient fire suppression agent is present within the agent tank.

18. The fire suppression system of claim 13 , wherein the nozzle is associated with a temperature sensor to mea

Assignees

• Tyco Fire Products Lp

Inventors

• Moffa Anthony Philip

Classifications

• A62C37/50 Primary

  Testing or indicating devices for determining the state of readiness of the equipment · CPC title

• A62C35/023

  the extinguishing material being expelled by compressed gas, taken from storage tanks, or by generating a pressure gas (for foam generation A62C5/02) · CPC title

• Y10S169/00

  Fire extinguishers · CPC title

• G08B29/145

  of fire detection circuits · CPC title

• G08B29/043

  of fire detection circuits · CPC title