FST Innovation Pty Ltd: innovating fire protection

The world around us is experiencing momentous change, the greatest in generations. FST Innovation Pty Ltd aims to be at the forefront of the latest technologies to set new standards and a level of enhancements not previously seen in the fire protection industry.

A desired tourist destination by many globally, Australia is known for its natural wonders and wide-open spaces. Its remoteness in the Southern Hemisphere has also seen it be one of the leaders in the world when it comes to innovation, where everything is an ocean away.

Everyday items such as the refrigerator (1856), the notepad (1902) and the first car radio (1924) were all items that found their life via the fruitful thoughts of Australians. In fact, the Wi-Fi you may be relying upon to read this article was first issued a patent in Australia in 1992 (WLAN).

And it is in Australia, where a small company commenced with the idea to make life easier for those working within the fire-protection industry, to improve on the functionality of products, that the company known as FST Innovation Pty Ltd (FSTi) was born.

The brainchild of Mr Shae Mete, the founder and inventor, originated whilst working as a fire-sprinkler technician who looked at the effort and time, and often risks involved, in his daily work requirements and thought there must be a better way.

The first product conceived was a fire sprinkler. Now one may ask why a fire sprinkler, the same basic concept of which has been around for 150 years, and the function and its design premise has not changed. But this was not Shae’s concern; it was the problems often associated with sprinklers after the initial installation was completed.

From this, the SmartConnect sprinkler solution was born. With a specially designed functionality added to the fire sprinkler, a suite of tools is now available to not only aid in the removal of the sprinkler with no risk during the drain-down process but also tooling designed to stop the flow of water in accidental activations.

It is worth noting that in the years 2015–19, in the US alone there were an estimated 29,000 unintentional sprinkler activations per year. The costs and inconvenience to the owner, occupiers and insurers cannot be truly quantified.

And from here FSTi has only grown. With a wealth of knowledge across multiple disciplines, a dedicated board and international offices that manage the growth of the company that within a few short years has several patents to its name, with over 30 further design projects on its drawing board across a full range of products that encompass both the fire detection and fire suppression sphere.

The eclectic team assembled by FSTi brings together direct experience in fire detection and suppression, wireless communications, IoT and virtual reality. There has been a great depth of knowledge applied in strategic and consultive expertise in licensing, commercialization, patent management, trade and joint ventures.

But FSTi is not a manufacturer; the design and concepts it develops, up to and including approvals and testing by world-leading testing authorities, are available for all (subject to commercial agreements) based on the philosophy of implementation and improvement of life safety for all stakeholders. FSTi partners with world-leading manufacturing companies to bring this process to reality.

For FSTi is an engineering think tank, using a collaborative approach from a multi-faceted group that searches within the current issues that affect others, to seek inspiration to pioneer designs to supply solutions to problems that are taken for granted as part of the job.

Of the issues found, one is the current method of supervising fire-sprinkler systems. In incidents where fire-sprinkler systems failed to operate effectively, the main cause in over 50% of events was that the system was shut down at some point before the fire. In a further 18%, the cause was manual intervention defeating the system.

FSTi has now developed working prototypes that offer Enhanced Security devices to ensure that water is available when required in an emergency, with a higher degree of tamper-proofing that will also guarantee notification to relevant parties when the system is not in operable conditions.

The FSTi engineers are highly skilled and use the latest technologies for 3D CAD, flow engineering, prototyping, metallurgy assessment and 3D additive manufacturing, in developing custom-engineered products. FSTi bespoke services are available for all, from a single project with unique challenges to products that set benchmarks for others to meet.

For more information, go to https://fst-i.com/

Or contact Frank Cooper at frank.cooper@fst-i.com, tel: +61 (0) 4 1455 5079