103832Automist Smartscan: the emergence of the smart fire sprinklerClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKPlumis' 15-month experimental development project to develop a reliable, self-testing, water efficient, “smart” fire suppression device is motivated by a market opportunity to bring innovative and affordable fire suppression to domestic properties, a technological challenge to radically improve current sprinkler technology. Basic and unreliable sprinkler systems form the current standard in fire suppression. More than 40 million sprinkler heads are installed each year worldwide, but they fail to perform 1 in 9 times and are used more in industry rather than homes because of mandated regulations, low value proposition for domestic consumers and perceptions of their collateral effects. Plumis will significantly improve upon the current state of the art by developing “Smartscan”, a new fire suppression capability building on its Automist system which was funded with the aid of a 2013 Innovate UK Smart development of prototype grant. Automist won the Red Dot Design Award and the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation in 2016. Smartscan will improve on the current state of the art in domestic and industrial fire supression by being the first water mist-based system offering whole house protection, targeted and intelligent detection and suppression, and connected autonomous self-testing without the need to spray water in properties. Public funding would allow Plumis both the time and resources to focus fully on the project and to proceed at top speed towards commercialisation in the UK and US, developing a step-change innovation in the fire suppression industry with strong long-term benefits for the public good in a timely fashion.