Gateway interfaces fire detectors to Lonworks

The Zumwalt class is designed to operate seamlessly with other naval, ground and land-based air forces.

The ships will include an automated fire suppression system, which is an advanced automated damage-control system that combines sensors, cameras and automated fire-fighting capabilities.

This system is said to improve survivability in both peacetime and wartime while reducing the number of crew members needed for damage control.

Supporting the fire system is the fire detection system supplied by Meggitt Safety Systems that includes smoke, heat and flame detection capability.

The system includes Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus (Vesda) aspiration smoke detectors and Meggitt IR5 flame detectors providing fire detection capability with a low false-alarm rate.

For proper operations, it was necessary to interface these detectors to a Lonworks-based network and the fire system on board the DDG-1000.

Fieldserver Technologies was looked to by Meggitt Safety Systems to quickly and reliably design the Vesda and Modbus RTU to Lonworks protocol interfaces necessary to integrate the smoke and flame detectors to the Lonworks network.

Fieldserver's protocol library and experience provided the solution for this network integration.