Some service visits are a short drive down the motorway. This one was a little further.
Recently, I swapped the UK for South Australia, touching down in Adelaide to carry out calibration, servicing and maintenance on Voltex’s AW Technology smoke detector test tunnel. It’s a long way to go to clean an atomiser and calibrate an obscuration meter, but that’s rather the point. Reliable fire detection testing doesn’t stop at a border, and neither do we.
Why the trip matters
Voltex run an AW Technology test tunnel as part of their detector testing setup, and like any precision instrument, it needs regular attention to keep performing to standard. Left unchecked, particle generation drifts, airspeed creeps, and thermocouples lose their accuracy. None of it dramatic day to day, but all of it enough to put a question mark over your test results when it matters most.
That’s where a proper service and calibration visit comes in. Not a quick once-over, but a full strip, clean, check and certify of every system that affects the accuracy of the tunnel.
What the visit covered
Over the course of the visit I worked through the full service schedule on the tunnel and its associated equipment, including:
- Atomiser service — stripped, cleaned and checked for consistent particle generation
- Obscuration meter calibration — verified against known references for accurate readings
- Airspeed check and calibration — confirming the tunnel runs to spec, with a certificate to prove it
- Thermocouple calibration — because temperature accuracy is non-negotiable in heat testing
- Full functional testing — running the tunnel through its cycles to confirm everything performs as it should
By the time I left, the tunnel was cleaned, calibrated, certified and ready to give Voltex accurate, repeatable results for another year.
Calibration, servicing and technical training, wherever you are
This is exactly what CA Tech Solutions was built to do. Whether your test tunnel is in the Midlands or on the other side of the world, we bring the same hands-on expertise, OEM-standard servicing and certified calibration to keep your fire detection testing accurate and compliant.
If you operate an AW Technology test tunnel and it’s due a service, or you’ve inherited one and you’re not sure where to start, we can help. Calibration, servicing, maintenance and technical training, delivered on-site and done properly.
Thanks to the team at Voltex for the warm welcome to Adelaide. Same time next year?
