Pastificio Rana (Industrial - Latitude)

From humble beginnings the story of the Rana pasta factory begins. In the early 60’s, in beautiful Verona, Giovanni Rana dared to take on the local mothers and grandmothers by delivering homemade tortellini direct to the doors of busy working families from the back of his little red Moto Guzzi bike. Soon his freshly filled pasta grew in popularity and the demand became so great the workforce of one had to expand.

Fast forward 60 years and Giovanni’s pasta is now a household brand lovingly served on tables around the world, employing over 2000 people globally all committed to serving fresh and authentic Italian pasta.

Pastificio RANA continues to invest in Italian territory and expand its production capacity. This has been helped by the recent acquisition of a new production site in Moretta, in the Province of Cuneo.

CUBI Impianti Tecnologici, a leading Italian fire safety installer, was commissioned to install all the electrical systems, including life safety, within the entire building.

The life safety installation project at RANA Moretta was incredibly complex with food production and cold storage areas. Therefore a wide and versatile range of fire detection products was required to keep the staff and building safe. Another requirement was to reduce false alarms in this manufacturing environment, and so the technical department of CUBI chose Hochiki systems, due to the reliability and versatility of its products.

A fully networked Latitude control panel, which combines the very latest hardware and software to produce an approved control and indication system, was installed. The Latitude system is preferred by many of Hochiki’s Italian customers due the powerful and sophisticated design, yet simplicity of use by the end user. Connected to this fire alarm control panel the CUBI srl team fitted Hochiki’s analogue addressable fire detection range, ESP.

Ezio Danese, Project Manager at Hochiki Italia said:

“In the corridors of the cold rooms, an environment with a lot of humidity and steam, Hochiki’s ACB-EW detector was fitted. Incorporating a variable fixed temperature heat element and a ‘rate of rise’ heat element, both of which are controlled from the control panel, this device is perfect for these cold storage environments where the risk of fire is higher compared to other environments.

To protect the factory’s cold room cavities aspirating systems were fitted, this was due to the difficulty of accessing this area for installation and maintenance. “

In this kind of food production factory, flour silos and processing areas are also at risk, due to the machinery and chemicals used. The team opted to install Hochiki’s range of Intrinsically Safe devices which are BASEEFA to IECEx and ATEX certified. These devices only allow low currents and voltages to enter any hazardous areas, and therefore ensure the whole circuit is considered, not just the device in isolation. Hochiki’s Intrinsically Safe Circuit restricts electrical and thermal energy so that the ignition of a hazardous atmosphere (from explosive gas or dust for example) cannot occur.

Similarly, in the technical production rooms, where the cooling machines are located, gas detection stations were installed to immediately detect any ammonia leakage or lack of oxygen.

Should the RANA pasta factory need to be modified or expanded, the installation company has designed the system with this in mind – using Hochiki systems and devices to future proof the safety of the facility.