Ok, so, although I LOVE fire alarms, I honestly know NO manufacturing dates whatsoever. So, this may be quite a favor, but it would be great if someone could create like a list, graph or chart, showing different companies, when they started and/or stopped, and their alarms and dates they were in production and when they were discontinued. I feel like this would not only benefit me, but everyone else on the board as well. Plus, some people on the board have extremely rare alarms that I’m sure many of us would like to know when they were manufactured. If anyone could help, that would be amazing! Thanks!
Edit: (Also, some critical info (ie. How many zones on a panel) on some devices would be cool too!)
We used to have something exactly like that for Simplex products. It was on the DFA wiki, which is now closed. I bet that Destin saved a copy, however (he may have been the author).
I’ll start working on something like this for the wiki so that everyone can contribute. I probably have that Simplex graph saved on an external hard drive somewhere, but since some of those dates ended up being wrong, I’ll just start fresh.
Here’s a rather basic list on when many of the Simplex panels were made, starting with conventional systems. Early ones I am not sure about, but most panels since the 1970s I have a better idea on when they’re from…
Yes, the 4010ES has now replaced the 4010. I believe Wiley’s list is all correct except for the 2001 - it came out in 1978 and was replaced by the 4100 in 1988, though they continued to manufacture parts for existing installations into the 90’s.
Wiley209 might want to add a line for the 4100+ which also began being released in 1992. This was the second generation 4100. The original 4100 that started in 1988 became referred to as the 4100 Classic and was phased out as the 4100+ was released.
The 4100+ received additional upgrades in 1994 with the release of an upgraded master controller board and new front panel with PRIORITY 2 and alarm silenced LED. The product designation remained 4100+.
Just as a side note, the 4120 product designation was not a different panel. It was the product designation given to a 4100+ that was ordered as part of a network system. The internal hardware was all 4100+ but with the addition of the 4120 network card from the factory. Any 4100+ in the field could be added to a network system with the addition of a network card.
Here are the ones I know for who bought who:
Not sure about the Mircom Group or some of the other “random” brands though.
Current parent companies are in red bold.
Company names with children are in black bold.
Company names with no children are black, not bold.
Defunct company names are in dark red.
Honeywell
Gamewell-FCI (formed 2005)
Gamewell (2003)
Silent Knight (1999) Pittway Corporation: (2000 by Honeywell)
Fire-Lite (unknown date)
FCI (1997)
System Sensor (formed 1984) Emhart Corporation (Notifier division) (1987 by Pittway)
Notifier (1960s)
Tyco Life Safety / SimplexGrinnell Simplex Time Recorder Company (2000 by Tyco)
IBM fire alarm division (1958) Grinnell (1996 by Tyco) Thorn Security (1996 by Grinnell)
Kidde (commercial fire division only) (late 80s) Wormald (Autocall division) (1990 by Thorn Security) Federal Signal (Autocall Division) (1990 by Wormald)
Autocall (sometime in the 1950s or 1960s)
United Technologies GE Security (2010 by United Technologies)
VigilanT (formed 2007)
FireworX (formed 2009) SPX Corporation (EST division) (2004 by GE) General Signal (1998 by SPX Corporation)
EST (formed 1993)
FAST (1993)
Edwards (1962)
Benjamin (date unknown)
Siemens Cerberus Pyrotronics (1998 by Siemens)
Pyrotronics (date unknown)
Gamewell (date unknown, later spun-off and eventually sold to Honeywell 2003) Faraday (1995 by Cerberus Pyrotronics)
After General Signal’s acquisition of Mirtone in 1988, the company’s former president founded Mircom (in 1991). Secutron (founded in 1973) was purchased from Tyco by Mircom in 2004; until 2002, it seems that Secutron belonged to DSC.
Maybe that’s why the Kidde fire alarm system at South Station in Boston was replaced with a Simplex 4100U system? (Many of the old Kidde pulls and smoke detectors are still intact.)
Thorn owned Kidde and Autocall right before Grinnell bought them out, so it is possible that the system installed was a Kidde branded Autocall panel that used the “TFX” addressable protocol, which the 4100U is backwards-compatible with.
When did Kidde get sold out to UTC then? I’d imagine their commercial FA stuff was discontinued before they were sold off, but it would be odd to see EST or FireworX stuff rebranded as Kidde.
I’m not sure when Kidde got sold to UTC but all I know is that sometime in the 80s, Kidde sold off its commercial fire alarm division to Thorn but retained residential smoke alarms and fire extinguishers.
I wonder why UTC doesn’t have Kidde reenter the commercial fire alarm market. I guess they’ve already got it covered with EST.
Also, happy belated birthday!
I’ve never really understood UTC’s strategy. They seem to buy a lot of companies that give them a lot of redundancies and shut them down. GE Security comes to mind recently, direct competitor to Lenel. For fire they have Autronica, EST, and Kidde.
I think they just want the customer base and phase out the systems in favor of their own flagship product.
I hate to bring up an old-ish topic, but did anyone ever make, like, a chart or something for this? If anyone has more dates that would be helpful, and I could make a chart as well.
