Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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IMPROVEMENTS IN O~_R~LATING TO P~RSONN~L
fi~E~Y ARRANG~MENTS
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This invention relates to personnel ~afety arrangements, and
it relates e6pecially though not exclusiYely to such arrangements
for a~sisting the evacuation of perl30nnel from bulldings or other
enclosed areas, or areas with restr1cted
5 egre6s and access polnts, under emergency conditions. Typlcal
emergency conditions include (without limitation) ~tructural
damage due to fire or other cau~e~, terror~st activities or threat
thereof, escape~ of toxic fumes, mob violence etc.
~ In many such circumstances it is considered desirable to
t lO provide an arrangement which automatically guides evacuees toward
exits. Such arrangements are described, for example, in Briti6h
Patent No. 1,498,483 and United States Patent
~ No. 4,347,499. A difficulty with such arrange~ent6, however, is
l~ that unless special step~ are taken to the contrary, it i6 ~-
~ lS possible to direct personnel in the immediate vicinity of the
¦; emergency toward exits which are unusable or, wor6e still, towardthe cause of the emergency. -~
Thi6 invention aims to reduce the above-mentioned difficulty
and thus, in acordance with the invention, there i6
20 provided an emergency evacuation arrangement for a structure or
region having limited egress locations, the arrangement including
a plurality of sensor mean6 each for sensing an emergency
situation at a respective zone of said structure or region, and
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for generating electrical fiignals indicative of at
25 leaRt the exi6tence of an emergency situation and the location of
the zone associated with that sensor, processing means arranged to
receive electrical signals from said sensors and to process said
signals to generate alarm indication signal~ and escape route
indication signals, and means responsive to the
30 indication signals generated by said processing means to supply
alarm indication ~ignal6 only to any zone in which the existence
of an emergency ~ituation is sensed thereby to generate in any
such zone n warning of sald emergency situation without escape
route indication, and to supply e~cape route indication signals
35 together with alara indication signals to other zones, thereby to -
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generate in said other zones a warning oP said emergency situation
and a route for safe eBress for personnel in ~aid other zoneA.
The arrangementa of the invention thus warns personnel ln the
zone at which the emergency situation has been ~ensed that the
emergency situation exist~ but does not attempt to direct such
per~onnel with regard to egress from that zone. In other zones,
per~onnel are both warned about the emer~ency situation and guided ~ -~
to 6afe egress locations.
In order that the invention may be clearly understood and ~ -
readily carried into effect, and embodiment thereof will now be
described, by way of example only, with reference to the
accompanying drawings of which: -
Flgure 1 shows a schematic layout of a structure from which - ;~
~ egress of personnel is to be controlled $n an emergency situation, -~
1 15 Figure 2 show~ a schematic electrical system for controlling! the egress of personnel from the structure of Figure 1~ and
Figure 3 shows a route marker suitable for use with an
arrangement in accordance with the invention.
Referring now to the drawing6, the structure shown in
Figure 1 comprises a galleried layout although this i~, of course,
in no way material to the invention. The structure 1 comprises a
~ peripheral gallery 2 which communicates with four main external
¦ doors, 3-6, and with various internal door6 7-10 which, in turn
communicate with respective internal zones 11-14 ~-
of the structure 1.
There are additional zones 15-18, and further internal doors
19-29 wh~ch permit communication between various of the zones but
which do not directly communicate with the gallery 2. -
The zone~ may be rooms, offices, laboratories or may indeed
have any kind of function. Each of the zones 11-18 is provided
with a respective sensor device 30-37 which, in each case, may be
capable of sens~ng the existence of one or more alarm-worthy
situations. Each sen60r, for example, may have the ability to
detect smoke, flame, heat and vibration or any of these or other
possible indicationa of the existence of an emergency s~tuation.
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i The ~ensor devices generate electrical ~ignals indicative of the
~ ex~stence of an emergency situation (and possibly al~o of the type;~ of emergency if the devlces are capable of responding to a number
of stimuli) and these signals are fed into a central processing
unit 38.
The unit 38 receives and correlates all input 6ignals from
the sensor devices 30-37 and also i~: preferably arranged to carry
out regular check~ on the functionality of the devices. The unit
38 i~ also capable of ascertaining in which zone each detector
device is located. This may, for example, be achieved by each
device generating an identity code which is transmitted to the ~-
unit 38 for correlation with a look-up table held within a
¦ non-volatile memory in the unit 38 or in any other convenient
manner. ~n
~l 15 By the above means, the unit 38 is rendered aware of the ~
exi6tence of, and possible also the nature of, an alarm worthy ---
situation and of the zone in which such a situation has occurred.
Each zone has an alarm indicator, shown as an acou~tic
generator 39-46, although warnings other than, or in addition to,
audible warnings can be given f desired, and escape route
direction mark~ngs along approved routes therein. The escape
routes are indicated as pathways by dashed lines in Figures 1 and
by blocks 47-54 in Figure 2.
In response to the detection of an alarm-worthy situation,
25 the unit 38 iæ effective to energise the acoustic alarm indicators -~
39-46 in all ~ones and to energise the escape route direction
markings 47-54 in all zones other than the zone or zones in which
the alarm-worthy situation i8 sensed to exist.
For eaæe of explanation, it will now be considered that an
alar~-worthy condition has been detected in zone 11 by the ~ensor
device 30 located therein. An electrical signal indicative of the
existence of the sensed alarm-worthy condition and of the ldentity
of sensor device 30 (and thus of the zone 11) ls generated and
conveyed to the unit 38. Unlt 38 respond6 to this signal by
energisin8 the acoustic alarm indicators 39-46 in all zoneæ and
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~ the e~cape route direction markings 48-54 in all zones except the ~-
} zone 11. Extra e~cape route direction markings can be provided in
the gallery 2 if desired. ~
The energ~OEation of all acoustic alarm indicators 39-46 and -,
all e~cape route direction markings except for those indicated at
47 in zone 11 is illustrated in Figure 2 by 6chematic indications
of sound wave6 and the inclusion of arrows in boxe6 48-54;
box 47 being empty to indicate that the relevant escape route
direction marking6 are not energi6ed.
In Figure l, single-headed arrow6 are u6ed to indicate the
direction of egress advised under the control of unit 38 ln
certain zones. It will be ob6erved that, in some zone6,
double-headed arrow6 are shown. Thi6 indicates that, for the
relevant paths and for the particular alarm fiituation envisaged, - ;
it is feasible for personnel to leave in either direction. In
such circumstances, the unit 38 may be conditioned 60 as not to
ener~ise the route direction markings. Alternatively, and
preferably, the unit i6 conditioned to review the overall egre
situation and to select, for path6 and zone~ where more than one
escape direction is fea6ible, that route which i8 most appropriate
in the prevailing situation, bearing in mind that crowding at some
egress polnts might be avoidable if per60nnel from certain zone6
are guided to other egre6s points and bearing in mind the
desirability, where possible, of directing personnel away from the
zone 11 at which the emergency has arisen.
The aforementioned de6irable conditioning of the unit 38 can,
for example, be achieved by pre-programming suitable provisions
for a number of pos6ible contingencies into the unit so that the
appropriate reaction is automatically selected. In addition, as
shown in figure 2, a manual input arrangement, via a keyboard 55
or any other convenient interface, can be provided whereby a
controller can select certain modes of operation for the unit 38
and its associated components in dependence upon the actual
situat~on as perceived by the controller, who may be based locally
35 to the 6tructure 1 or remotely therefrom but in visual ~
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communication with the structure 1.
Figur~ 3 show6 a typical example of a vi~ual indicator or
route marker unit 56 6uitable for use with an arrangement in
accordance with the invention. These marker units such a~ 56 are ~-
distributed along the various escape routes and, in particular, at
decision points therein. They are capable of showing, on approach
thereto from each of two directions, either a green arro~ or a red
cross, depending whether or not a given route is to be followed in
accordance with the evacuation programme selected by unit 38
The string of marker units such as 56 along any route can, lf
de~ired, be repeatedly pulsed in sequence to encourage personnel
to evacuate at a reasonable speed as well as in the desired
direction. Pulsing may usefully occur between a "dim" condition
and a '~right" condition, (rather than on-and-off) to
ensure that at least some indication is always present of the
preferred direction of evacuation.
Usefully, an audible warning can be associated with the units
such as 56 and may be built into the same hou6ing or mounted
closely thereto. If the audible warning is so distributed, it can
20 be advantageous to use the sound as a sonic arrow, by pul~ing -~
and/or frequency changing the emitted sound, in known manner. If
this is done, even if smoke, dust or other material obscures the
lighted direction markers such as 56, evacuating personnel can be
guided by the sonic arrow toward the desired egress point.
The entire arrangement is, of course, preferably connected to
the emergency power supply of the structure or other region in
question and moreover the unit 38 is preferably conditioned so
that, in the event of failure it maintains communication with the
zones in accordance with the last instruction which it received.
