Sprinkler Age A Publication of the American Fire Sprinkler Association
By Greg Shaughnessy, ASC Engineered Solutions
This blog post contains sponsored content.
Installing seismic bracing can be made easier by selecting products that are designed to install fast and with less effort. If you’ve been designing your seismic bracing systems with the products that have been in your drawing library for more than 10 years, then you’re missing out on some great new product options that offer higher load ratings and will make the pipe fitters in your company very happy.
The first decision to make when designing a bracing system is to select the products to be used according to their load rating or capacity. The components of the brace will need to include an attachment to the structure and an attachment to the piping system. If one of those components has a lower load rating than the other, the lowest load rating will determine the load rating of the entire brace assembly. This follows the adage, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” So, when selecting components, you should select those with as high a common load rating as possible to maximize the spacing between the braces. This allows your design to have the most efficient, cost-effective configuration possible.
At ASC Engineered Solutions, we designed our AFCON® bracing products to have a common high load rating. We currently have the highest possible combination of load ratings in the fire sprinkler industry. When combining seismic products to form an assembly that includes a structural attachment to a steel beam, a swivel attachment, and an attachment to the pipe, we offer products that each have a UL load rating of 1885 lbs.
We also designed the latest versions of these products —the AF727 “Bear Claw” and AF735 “Bear Trap” — with features that make them very fast and easy to install.
The AFCON AF727 “Bear Claw” Universal Structural Attachment with Swivel is designed first and foremost to provide the highest load rating in the industry for a structural attachment to steel beams, including I-beams and Bar Joist or Open Web steel truss. This design allows it to be attached to beam thicknesses of up to ¾” with the same load rating of #1885. The brace member can be oriented in a direction perpendicular to the beam as well as parallel to the beam with the same maximum load rating as well. The design also enables the brace member to be from 1” up to 2” diameter pipe, allowing for longer and/or higher load ratings on the brace member. Incorporating longer brace members can be very important when designing braces that must reach from one joist where the pipe is supported, to the next joist over where the brace must be attached. Depending on how far below the joist the pipe is supported and the spacing between the roof joists, these brace members can be quite long, requiring larger 1 ½” or even 2” diameter pipe as the brace member.
To confirm that the installation has been done correctly with the proper torque, all set bolts with torque requirements are supplied with break-off heads to give visual confirmation to the installer that the bolts are torqued correctly. This visual verification also allows inspections to be performed without a torque wrench.
The Bear Claw comes fully assembled as an “out of the box” solution with a very competitive price when compared to the cost of a structure attachment and a swivel attachment that still require added time and labor to assemble in the field.
This video demonstration shows that the total installation time of the Bear Claw can be as fast as 18 seconds!
The AFCON AF735 “Bear Trap” Multi-Size Lateral Sway Brace Attachment was designed to be the perfect complimentary system attachment to the Fig. 727 “Bear Claw.” Universal swivel attachments have been around for a long time; these swivel fittings, such as our Fig. AF700, allow the use of 1” up to 2” brace pipe. This flexibility in design allows one SKU to be used in various situations that may require the brace member to support a greater load at a longer length. This flexibility also allows the user to bring one part to the jobsite. It will work in all the needed applications, rather than having to have multiple boxes of products on site and the potential to mis-install a product or install the wrong product at the wrong location. The Fig. AF735 Bear Trap applies the same flexibility to the pipe attachment side of the seismic brace assembly. It comes in a size range of 2 ½” up to 8” system pipe sizes, and each will work with 1” up to 2” diameter brace pipe.
The Fig. AF735 comes out of the box in a configuration ready to be used with either 1” or 1 ¼” brace pipe. With a quick change of the hinge pin (no tools required) the same part can be used with either 1 ½” or 2” brace pipe. Like all our lateral brace attachments, it can be installed by either dropping over the top of the system pipe and securing to the brace pipe or pushing up from beneath the system pipe and securing with the brace pipe on top of the system pipe, allowing the installer to meet the required brace angle. Installation of the entire brace assembly is also designed to be simpler when using the Bear Trap and Bear Claw together as all the hardware uses the same size socket for an impact wrench. All hardware with torque requirements are equipped with break-off head bolts, or nuts to give instant feedback to the installer that the correct torque has been applied. These break-off bolts and nuts also enable fast and easy inspections.
The design of the AF735 eliminates steps in the installation process that would normally be required in older product designs. The swinging hinges of the Bear Trap allow the fitter to install the product in a two-step process, rather than older designs that require a more time consuming three-step process. This video highlights this substantially reduced installation time.
With the launch of the Fig. AF727 Bear Claw and the Fig. AF735 Bear Trap, ASC Engineered Solutions now has the most cost efficient and labor efficient seismic bracing solution in the fire sprinkler industry. These products are included in our industry-leading Seis Brace® Seismic Fire Protection Design software. For more information on these products, contact us on our website or reach out to your local ASC sales representative.
