Lesser Known Fire Alarm Panel/Device Companies

Anyone know of any companies that manufacture fire alarm panels or fire alarm devices like that aren’t as widely known as other companies like Simplex/Johnson Controls or Honeywell?

Here are a few smaller (but not necessarily lesser-known) companies that are active on the North American market:

I’m not sure whether Spectronics is still active; their website does not appear to have been updated since the late '90s/early 2000s. However, Street View shows that their sign was still up on their headquarters in 2019.

Most of the companies mentioned above rebrand at least some of the products they sell (typically initiating devices and signals, although some companies, such as Nittan, also rebrand panels). Maple Armor appears to be the only one that manufactures everything in-house.

[quote="El Chupacabra" post_id=87449 time=1596716157 user_id=2572]

Here are a few smaller (but not necessarily lesser-known) companies that are active on the North American market:

I’m not sure whether Spectronics is still active; their website does not appear to have been updated since the late '90s/early 2000s. However, Street View shows that their sign was still up on their headquarters in 2019.

Most of the companies mentioned above rebrand at least some of the products they sell (typically initiating devices and signals, although some companies, such as Nittan, also rebrand panels). Maple Armor appears to be the only one that manufactures everything in-house.

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Interesting! I’ve heard of Firecom mainly because they had a system in the original WTC 7 in New York, and there’s a video of it going off on YouTube during 9/11. I believe I’ve heard of Maple Armor but besides that, those are all new names to me! I think I’ll check them out!

There’s also a company called Tele-Call, which is an Ohio based fire and security company. Old School Fire Alarms has a video of a Tele-Call system: https://youtu.be/EqypVuxpw0I

Another brand I forgot to mention in my previous post is Nohmi Bosai. Their N3060 panel looks pretty interesting, while their S508 panel appears to be a rebranded Potter product.

I also just realized that VES and Hochiki both seem to offer identical products. These two brands are related, according to VES’ website.

National Time & Signal Corporation is not widely known outside of the State of Michigan, where the company is headquartered. They used to manufacture their own NAs and pull stations, but they now re-brand those from Gentex and Sigcom, respectively. However, they do still manufacture their own panels.

One lesser-known company that’s kind of local to my area is Protectowire, the makers of the BG-50 pull station. They’re based in Pembroke, MA, and the only Protectowire fire alarm system I’ve seen in the field so far was the Knights of Columbus building in Pembroke; they have a Protectowire SRP4x4 fire alarm panel that also has a Notifier FireVoice-25/50 voice-evac panel and a Silent Knight power supply panel tied into it. The alarm signals are the older bulky-looking SpectrAlert speaker/strobes, and there are also Hochiki smoke detectors and Sigcom T-bar pulls rebranded by Protectowire. I was only at this place a couple of times for Halloween parties, and I’ve never even heard of Protectowire until I first saw that system in 2010.

What about Spectronics?

Kingfisher Company (KCi) — mainly radio transmitter systems but also have rebadged initiation devices.

United Security Products — made an electronic horn/strobe which looked like a 7002 but with a circular grill rings. There were 2 variants we know of: a horizontal strobe with Arial or Helvetica font on the lens and a vertical strobe with the same font as the MASS. The only known video of one is a blue painted one used for a parking ramp exit alarm. Now mainly make dialers and holdup buttons.

[quote="Fire Alarm Fan" post_id=87496 time=1597339859 user_id=56]

Kingfisher Company (KCi) — mainly radio transmitter systems but also have rebadged initiation devices.

United Security Products — made an electronic horn/strobe which looked like a 7002 but with a circular grill rings. There were 2 variants we know of: a horizontal strobe with Arial or Helvetica font on the lens and a vertical strobe with the same font as the MASS. The only known video of one is a blue painted one used for a parking ramp exit alarm. Now mainly make dialers and holdup buttons.

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The only time I’ve seen KCi panels were on the recently de-privatized fire drill videos by Capt421, in a few Connecticut schools. One of them a (variable?) relay to drive AC simplex 4040s and the IDC(s) had older flush-mount Gamewell non-coded hook pulls.