PRODUCT DETAILS

The Context Plus XP95 ionisation smoke detector has a moulded selfextinguishing white polycarbonate case with wind resistant smoke inlets. Stainless steel wiper contacts connect the detector to the terminals in the mounting base. Inside the detector case is a printed circuit board that has the ionisation chamber mounted on one side and the address capture, signal processing and communications electronics on the other. The ionisation chamber system is an inner reference chamber contained inside an outer smoke chamber. The outer smoke chamber has smoke inlet apertures that are fitted with an insect resistant mesh. The radioactive source holder and the outer smoke chamber are the positive and negative electrodes respectively. An Americium 241 radioactive source mounted within the inner reference chamber irradiates the air in both chambers to produce positive and negative ions. On applying a voltage across these electrodes an electric field is formed. The ions are attracted to the electrode of the opposite sign, some ions collide and recombine, but the net result is that a small electric current flows between the electrodes. At the junction between the reference and smoke chambers is the sensing electrode that is used to convert variations in the chamber currents into a voltage. When smoke particles enter the ionisation chamber, ions become attached to them with the result that the current flowing through the chamber decreases. This effect is greater in the smoke chamber than in the reference chamber and the imbalance causes the sensing electrode to go more positive.