Commercial buildings and “big box” stores keep getting bigger. Indoor malls are adding entertainment venues and restaurants. Even office structures are becoming more elaborate.
Posts Tagged ‘ aspiration ’
Survival in the Great Indoors
Savvy fire and life safety designers advocate for the right systems for each large indoor venue, while respecting the sometimes conflicting goals and demands of others involved in the decision.
FAAST Handles Plant’s Dirty Work
he Apex Tool Group is a billion-dollar tool manufacturing company with over 90 facilities worldwide. One such facility is its hand tool manufacturing plant in Gastonia, North Carolina. This particular plant specializes in processing raw metal into well-known brands of hand tools and sockets for industrial, commercial and do-it-yourself customers. The process to make 30 brands of hand tools creates caustic by-products and an extremely dirty environment.
Ask the Expert: Lock-Down Design in High-Risk Zones
Jim Mickowski, an engineer with PSJ Engineering, has more than 25 years of experience in the design and installation of fire suppression systems. His experience ranges from working on stadiums, museums and office buildings to high-security, high-risk areas in correctional facilities and nuclear facilities where there is “no access allowed.”
ACCESS DENIED: Finding a Safe Way Out of Danger
Inmates will abuse any building component within reach. So how do you design a system to detect and protect while keeping it safe, too?
Access Denied: Something Borrowed
Many of us can relate to the logic that there’s no sense reinventing the wheel: Why start fire and life safety design from scratch when there are already so many tried-and-true procedures and examples from which to borrow?
THE EXTREMES: Hot Strategies for Cold Conditions
Environments with high airflow or excessive temperatures, such as freezer or cold-storage warehouses, require robust and flexible fire protection solutions. These extreme environments present unique fire detection and suppression challenges that do not follow standard fire and life safety design. For example, while extremely cold, these warehouses can have such dry atmospheres that fire can spread faster than normal. As a result, each scenario needs to be evaluated to provide the necessary protection. Because there is no one-size-fits-all fire and life safety solution, familiarity with all technologies associated with fire detection, notification and suppression are important for designing a dependable and suitable system.
Ask the Expert: Extreme Environments Are Everywhere
Dan Ubelhor is the corporate engineering manager for Koorsen Fire & Security, headquartered in Indianapolis.
He oversees design and engineering of fire protection for Koorsen, which has been in business since 1943. Dan implements design policies for the company and consults with branches around the country on their fire protection design and engineering projects.
Science’s Answer to Critical Protection
The Science Museum of Minnesota installed FAAST Fire Alarm Aspiration Sensing Technology® for maximum protection in its hazardous fluids and equipment storage area.
Sophisticated & Strategic: Fire and Life Safety in Mission-Critical Applications
To protect information assets, a fire protection strategy must incorporate specific emergency identification and suppression alongside detection.