Foam Factories with Video-Based Fire Detection

Headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, manufacturing company Mouka Limited has built a leading position on the country’s household and industrial markets since its founding in 1959. With 800 employees and production facilities in Lagos, Benin and Kaduna, Mouka is now Nigeria’s foremost supplier of branded mattresses and foam-based products for sleep solutions. Products such as foam blocks, beddings and duvets, and polyurethane blocks are widely available throughout retail and wholesale channels in Nigeria.

Due to the highly flammable nature of foam and polyurethane materials, fire safety at manufacturing facilities is a prime concern. However, when Mouka Limited was looking for a solution that detects fire and smoke in less than 30 seconds – before fire can spread and potentially harm employees – the market had nothing to offer. The reason: Common point-type detectors, detecting smoke particles in the air, rely on smoke particles to rise, which can take several minutes – especially when detectors are mounted on high warehouse ceilings.

Fortunately, Bosch offers an innovative product sensitive enough: Aviotec, a VdS-certified solution for visual fire monitoring detecting smoke and flames at the source, which is much faster than common point-type detectors. Software inside each device analyzes the video images for visual patterns associated with fires like specific motion and shape characteristics or color changes. When connected to IP-based video management solutions the video images provide additional information e.g. for alarm verification or localization of the fire. Aviotec was much closer to the insurance’s requirements than any other solution on the market.

Working closely with the teams at the three Mouka Limited factories in Lagos, Benin and Kaduna, Bosch provided 34 Aviotec devices for video-based fire detection, alarm sounders, strobes and a third-party sprinkler system, all connected to a Bosch addressable Fire Panel 1200 Series.

With its ability to detect flame and smoke at a very early stage, the Bosch video-based fire detection system is a real asset at all three facilities. First, it significantly raises the safety of hundreds of employees at Mouka Limited factories. Second, it shortens alarm response times and thereby minimizes the risk of potential damage to equipment and product inventories. And third, analysis of video images of a fire allows for root cause analysis after an incident. In addition, the fact that the system offers fire detection at industry-leading speeds has been appreciated by the insurance provider responsible for setting the insurance premium for Mouka Limited’s facilities.

Meanwhile, word about the new state of the art in early fire detection at industrial manufacturing sites is spreading throughout Nigeria – and beyond.