Australian Fire Industries (AFI) and Plummers Industries have enjoyed a long-standing and effortless business relationship spanning more than 10 years. We have worked together on multiple projects in the past, with this most recent one taking place at an FMG site.
Plummers Industries is another proudly Western Australian business that we love working with. Their primary business function is the design, manufacture and installation of switchboards and associated equipment. Each year, Plummers Industries designs, constructs and delivers more than fifty fully equipped and tested switch rooms of various shapes and sizes.
Where does AFI come in?
For each and every one of these switch rooms, Plummers engages us to install the relevant fire protection required to ensure that in the event of any incident on site or within the switch room itself, fires can be detected and suppressed as quickly as possible.
The Job
Plummers Industries completed a switchboard install with FMG as part of the expansion of one of their sites. In cases where a switch room is critical to the operation of the site, it is important that extensive fire suppression is installed.
As a starting point, the team at AFI worked alongside the production manager of Plummers to create extensive drawings of the switch room in order to design the fire management systems required. In this case, we were looking at fire detection and suppression. This part of the process allows the AFI team to determine which type of detection devices and alarms we are going to use, as well as get a full understanding of any part of the site that may be impacted by the fire panel, gas bottles and pipework.
Once we were confident in our design and relevant requirements, we proceeded to procure the equipment needed to deliver the tailored solution. One of the benefits of the AFI service is our promise to deliver holistically when it comes to purpose-built solutions. We are able to complete the job from start to finish, from design through to delivery and installation. We can also provide the relevant equipment certifications required so that our customers, like Plummers, can be rest assured that we use trusted suppliers for every job.
Once we had all of our equipment in place, we did a final design QA and ensured that any customer comments were taken into consideration before proceeding to the installation. We used a combination of AFI team members with particular specialised capabilities in the design and installation areas, as well as one of our trusted subcontractors, to complete this job.
Unique Challenges to the Job
Supply was uniquely challenging on this job due to some delays associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a big strain on supply and often stretched out lead times from all of our suppliers across the industry. We responded to this by holding stock and accelerating the design phase so that we didn’t disrupt the production schedule of the switch room as a whole.
Post Installation Process
Once the installation was complete, we conducted comprehensive testing and certification on the site. One of the reasons Plummers use us as their fire prevention partner is because the testing element comes as part of the package. At AFI, we have the skills and the licences to do all of the certifications required to sign off the job in house. We’re able to complete FM 200, IG541 and NOVEC among others.
Beyond the design, installation and testing/commissioning, we provide continued support to assist Plummers as they continue their switchboard installations across various sites.
We continue to do work with Plummers on a revolving basis, with various jobs being worked on at any one time.
We look forward to a continued supportive partnership with Plummers Industries and many more projects to come.
