Technical Articles

“Air” on the Side of Caution If you are a reader of Sprinkler Age from front to back and not just one who subscribes for the pictures or gossip column, then you’ve seen the article walking you through the procedures for the annual partial and full dry system valve trip …

All That It Entails With all that NFPA 25, Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems, includes, few things are as straight forward as the trip testing of a dry system valve. Straight forward, however, does not mean uncomplicated. So, don’t lose focus during this …

A Simplified Approach The scope and purpose of this article are to show that when the gas produced by a nitrogen generator for corrosion mitigation in dry or preaction sprinkler piping is at least 99.5 percent pure (maximum 0.5 percent residual oxygen), purging (venting) air from an initial pressurizing step …

Informal Interpretations Offer Solutions and Savings The informal interpretations featured in this issue of Sprinkler Age address storage issues. AFSA’s informal interpretations are provided to AFSA members by Vice President of Engineering & Technical Services Roland Huggins, PE; Senior Fire Protection Engineer Russ Bainbridge, PE; and Technical Programs Specialist Tom …

Issues Concerning Smoke and Heat Vents When protecting storage occupancies there are several issues that can impact the selected protection methods. This article will discuss conditions where smoke and heat vents or mechanical smoke removal systems could potentially be installed along with sprinklers and the issues that might arise. The …

The Importance of Accuracy A variety of factors have contributed to the increased implementation of dry pipe sprinkler systems. The inclusion of exterior design elements such as exterior canopies, in addition to NFPA 13’s prohibition of the use of antifreeze in new installations, has forced designers to include dry pipe …

Multi-Stage Multi-Outlet Vs. Series Pumping Vs. Single Pump with PRV The urban migration rate for the United States is on the rise every year. According to the 2010 census, 80.7 percent of Americans lived in urban areas, which is up by 1.7 percent as compared to the 2000 census. This …

Accepted Changes and Additions The NFPA 20 committee has completed the review process and update of the 2019 edition of NFPA 20, Standard for the Installation of Stationary Pumps for Fire Protection, and it is ready for distribution to the public. This article highlights some of the important results of …

Major Updates Made to the Standard The major updates for the 2019 edition of NFPA 14, Standard for the Installation of Standpipe and Hose Systems, are to align the extracted reference tags with previous editions of other standards along with the requirements in other codes and standards. There are not …

Get the Upper Hand George Costanza needed the “upper hand” in his relationship in one episode of Seinfeld. Maybe an upper hand in your business is missing or lacking, and an inspection, testing, and maintenance (ITM) arm is what you need to get that “hand.” What can an ITM department do …