VESDA by Xtralis
VESDA VFT-15 Product Guide
www.xtralis.com
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Introduction
Welcome to the VESDA VFT Product Guide. This document is written to provide you with information on
technical specifications, cabling, and how to install, configure and operate these detectors.
The VFT-15 is an aspirating smoke detector that provides early warning of fire by analyzing air drawn through
microbore tubes. A highly sensitive detection chamber is able to detect smoke at very low concentrations.
Figure 1-1: VESDA VFT
Embedded and PC software enable the configuration of a wide range of user defined parameters and reporting
capabilities and extended input and output functionality is achieved through the addition of plug-in modules.
Additional guidelines about the VESDA VFT system design are found in the Appendices:
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Appendix B on page 47 provides information regarding designing and installing the microbore tubes
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Appendix C on page 51 provides information on how to commission a system
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Appendix D on page 55 provides information on how to connect the detector to a PC for monitoring and
configuration and guidelines on how to correctly connect RS485 equipment
VFT detectors incorporate a rotary valve as a method of sampling individual microbore tubes and providing
addressability. This unique feature is described in Chapter 2.
The aspiration systems use an internal vacuum pump (high pressure system) and air flow is monitored
through the microbore tubes by a differential pressure sensor. As high pressure systems are capable of
drawing air samples through microbore tubes, they are often preferred when installations need to be
unobtrusive.
VFT detectors are primarily designed for applications where pin point addressability of fire source is required.
For the purpose of calculating sampling point spacing, the equivalent maximum area coverage for the VFT-15
is 1,500 m² (16,150 ft²) with 15 sampling tubes.
The basic system includes RS232, RS485 and TCP/IP interfaces for connecting to the Xtralis VSC and
Xtralis VSM4 software. When connected by TCP/IP, Xtralis VSM4 enables the configuration and monitoring
of a large number of systems by a single PC, which can be accessed from anywhere via any standard internet
connection.
VFT-15 detectors are appropriate for EN54-20 Class A, B and C installations while VFT-15-C detectors are
suitable for EN54-20 Class C installations only.
