New log printing tech for emergency lighting
Safety in public buildings
Emergency lighting systems are mandatorily installed in all large public building facilities such as airports, hotels, clubs, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, colleges, licensed premises, offices, museums, shops, multi-storey dwellings etc. They are designed to activate automatically in emergency situations (e.g. fires, power cuts, etc.) to provide sufficient light for people to safely evacuate during power supply failures.
Standard logging norms
Each country has different norms for various kinds, types and sizes of public buildings to guarantee minimum safety standards. These usually enjoin continuous monitoring and regular automatic testing of luminaires (exit signs) and battery loads. In compliance with current standards companies are also usually compelled to log and print out test results and alarms with log printers for permanent record keeping.
High price for renewal ..?
Despite the prospective costs involved, companies operating emergency lighting systems in public building facilities are responding to the current changes to electronic systems. Depending on the solution chosen, however, the costs for the adaptation of legacy to USB interfaces may range from total replacement of lighting control systems to merely upgrading existing ones with customized supplementary components. At first glance, the potential costs involved appear overwhelming!
.. not if you do your homework!
The major German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG, for example, wanted to raise the log printing standards of its barely 10-year old CEAG emergency lighting systems and for some reason or other could not be helped by its customary supplier and operating company. So it came that Bayer, too, may have been startled at first by the dire prospects of having to entirely replace its functioning unamortized lighting systems under enormous costs. Fortunately, however, Bayer’s operators did their homework! After a short search in the net they alighted upon the amazingly cost-saving ipcas supplementary component solutions
- Centronics to USB Printer Converter for parallel interfaces
- RS232 to USB Converter for serial interfaces
Get more than an upgrade
The ipcas supplementary component solutions are not only the answer to changing interface technology. – For the price of a simple upgrade you additionally gain access to the future technology of online monitoring, printing, testing, data processing, control … and more … via various kinds of networks ….
For additional benefits and information, refer to previous contributions and the specifications under Printing Solutions on the ipcas hardware website.
So there is good news with excellent prospects for all companies and businesses faced with similar requirements to upgrade or even network their log printing for both parallel and serial systems.
