Summary
iMist is a designer, manufacturer and installer of watermist fire protection systems for homes and residential buildings, and in 2022 became the first company to pass the FPA’s UKAS accredited BS 8458 Annex C range of residential and domestic watermist system tests.
Challenges
Domestic and residential properties pose high fire risks and as one of only a few companies around the world who keep everything in house from design through to manufacturing, and installation, iMist need to be able to give their customers peace of mind by demonstrating that their watermist system is third party tested, and therefore compliant with industry standards and best practice.
iMist’s aim was to show that their system is effective in keeping a fire suppressed in a standard residential sized room, whilst not allowing the flames or heat to escape into adjacent rooms and keeping water damage to a minimum. One of the biggest challenges they faced in achieving this was the activation time of the watermist nozzles, but in the latest design they were found to activate 40 seconds into the test on average, keeping the fire under control, and in some instances, extinguishing it altogether.
How the FPA helped
The FPA is the first UKAS accredited fire testing facility in the UK to offer this important British Standard test and our team of experts helped iMist to ensure they had taken the right steps to meet best practice. Passing the FPA’s UKAS accredited test provides iMist’s customers with the assurance that the system has been tested to the highest standard and will perform as intended should a fire occur.
We worked with UKAS to get their accreditation and to ensure that we followed the strict protocols when testing to the BS 8458 Annex C live fire test standard. The independent testing facility at our laboratory in Blockley, Gloucestershire provides the ideal environment to run the tests, and offers our customers the opportunity to watch the tests via our video camera system.
Results and future plans
iMist is delighted to be the first company to pass the FPA’s UKAS accredited BS 8458 Annex C residential and domestic watermist system test, which demonstrates the rigour of the test. Now they have passed it, iMist is unique in the market as they can provide their customers with a UKAS accredited stamp of approval when installing the system.
Tony Sims, iMist Founder commented: “It was important to us to get tested by a UKAS accredited facility – it gives our customers an independent stamp of approval for the iMist system and we are proud to have the only system that can claim this. We really valued the expertise and professionalism of the FPA team at Blockley and were of course delighted that our newly designed nozzle reacted so quickly and took the performance of the system to a whole new level.”
Jade Musto, Head of Suppression Systems at the FPA said: “Testing conducted by a UKAS accredited laboratory provides evidence of the effectiveness of a system, enabling manufacturers and designers to build trust with their customers and show them they are investing in a reliable system. At the FPA we strongly believe that third party testing is the best way to achieve this and we are delighted that iMist’s system has passed the test, demonstrating its performance in the event of a fire.”
Find out more about the FPA’s UKAS accredited BS 8458 watermist systems testing.