When the facilities management team at Kentucky's Newport Aquarium needed a 24/7 monitoring system, capable of quick and easy detection and location of water and fuel leaks, as well as alerting them in time to instigate an effective response, they specified a TraceTek monitoring system from Tyco Thermal Controls, world leaders in industrial, commercial and environmental liquid leak detection solutions.
Leaks can cause costly damage in almost any situation but in a one million gallon aquarium showcasing thousands of animals from around the world, the consequences of a leak could be disastrous, causing malfunctions in critical support systems and threatening the life of the marine animals.
KingsMen LLC, TraceTek's regional Partner, provided Newport Aquarium with the optimum solution using Tyco Thermal Controls' TraceTek leak detection systems. The TraceTek TT1000 sensing cable quickly reacts to the presence of water and triggers an alarm. For fuel leak detection, the TraceTek Fast Fuel Sensor (FFS) probe triggers an alarm within a few seconds of initial contact with hydrocarbons. These high integrity sensors can be re-used many times as the probes will reset once removed and any fuel residue evaporates or is cleaned off.
KingsMen and the aquariums' facilities team worked together closely throughout the design and installation process. The company's turnkey solution approach allowed the team to integrate training into their daily responsibilities. They were taught how to understand and maintain the systems operational capabilities. Just having it installed gave them peace of mind but they are now capable of getting the most out of the system, ensure its integrity and undertake the correct monitoring procedures.
As well as designing the system to monitor areas that have already been a problem or deemed most important immediately, it's set up for easy plug and play and future expansion. As other areas throughout the site present a need for continuous monitoring of leaks, KingsMen can add the area to the existing modular system at little extra cost.
Eleven water sensing probes were strategically installed throughout the facility to monitor all areas and equipment where water leaks pose a risk including pumps, flanges, valves, filters, tanks etc. and the IT/Server Data Room. These are supported with Sensor Interface Modules and a central control panel to alert facilities managers to any leaks and their location. The control panel also communicates with the web server to send an incident notification. Two Fast Fuel Sensors (FFS) were also installed to monitor the fuel tanks serving the back-up generator. Associated control panels identify which area of the building each probe protects and will display the area being monitored: So if there is a problem in the shark tank it will show as ‘shark habitat'. The central panel communicates remotely with a web server and sends event notification to the appropriate facilities manager to ensure the response plan is set in motion speedily.
Marcus Barrett, Facilities Manager Life Support at the Newport Aquarium commented. "With TraceTek I feel I have a top quality leak detection system which will prevent a million gallon disaster."
Tyco Thermal Controls
http://www.tycothermal.com/
Tyco Flow Control
http://www.tycoflowcontrol.com/
