American Axle

American Axle is another strong SW MI company that chose to partner with Siemens fire alarm. As a world leader in the design, engineering, testing, validation and manufacturing of driveline, drive train and chassis systems, related components, and metal formed products for light trucks and buses, sport utility vehicles, crossover vehicles, and passenger cars, AAM understands what quality is. As you can see it was no surprise when AAM made the decision to work with Communication Company to protect their staff and valuable assets.

When it came time for American Axle Manufacturing in Three Rivers, a tier-one leader in front and rear propeller shaft assembly and front and rear axle manufacturing, to upgrade their fire alarm system, they chose to stay with their long time partners at Communication Company. Almost 20 years ago AAM chose us to provide and install their Siemens MXL Voice fire alarm system in their almost 1 million square foot manufacturing facility. Today the facility is protected by a new Siemens FireFinder® XLS, a responsive intelligent fire detection system that detects fires and begins notifying occupants in seconds.

Challenge: Upgrade the facilities fire alarm panels networked throughout the plant, as well as replacing both the notification and initiating appliances, while virtually eliminating system downtime.

Solution: We deployed multiple two man teams of technicians to each panel location where upgrades were to take place. Simultaneously, at each panel location, the old panels were removed and the new panels were installed using electronics which allowed the continued use of the existing field devices and would also accommodate the new state of the art field devices. This allowed the transition of the field devices one zone at a time which eliminated the fire alarm system from being offline for more than a few hours at a time.
Products Used: Siemens FireFinder® XLS Voice