ELV design for a European tool manufacturer's logistics and training facility

The brief

A single building housing three functions with three different risk profiles: a racked warehouse, a training center receiving external visitors in groups, and an open-plan office. Each wanted different things from the same low-current systems.

What we did

Evacuation was designed as one strategy across all three zones, which meant resolving the hardest case first — audibility and detector coverage in racked aisles, where racking height and content both work against you. Office and training areas then followed straightforwardly.

Access control zoning was drawn around the visitor flow: training groups reach the training center and its amenities without passing a controlled boundary, while warehouse and office areas stay restricted, so the receptionist is not issuing and reconciling temporary cards all day.

Delivery notes

Wireless coverage in the warehouse was designed against the racking layout, not the empty shell. Racking full of metal product is not the same radio environment as a bare floor plate, and a coverage design done on the architectural plan alone would have failed on the day the warehouse filled up. We used the racking drawings and added access point positions accordingly.