Heat and Smoke Ventilation
The construction of large industrial and storage buildings with extensive undivided floor areas has created extremely difficult fire fighting problems. Since the fire department must enter these areas in order to combat fires in central portions of the building, there is a necessity of heat responsive ventilation equipment. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has performed full scale testing that proves the addition of proper ventilation will assist fire fighters in accessibility of the source of the fire and to take direct action against it thereby reducing overall damage to the building.
Western Firex Heat and Smoke Ventilators have been manufactured continuously since 1956. During this time, tens of thousands of ventilators have been produced and designs have been constantly upgraded and improved. To assist you in determining your minimum ventilation requirements we propose the following guidelines:
- Building designers and fire protection engineers cannot rely on casual inclusion of skylights, windows, or monitors as adequate venting means.
- The vent opening should measure at least four (4) feet in any direction.
- Opening mechanism must operate automatically in the event of a fire, without the use of electricity.
- All automatic vents should be designed to also open manually.
- Opening mechanisms must be made of non-corrodible materials.
- Vents are not a substitute for sprinklers or other fire extinguishing equipment.
- Vents should remain securely closed against internal pressure build-up during wind and rain storms.
- Vents should be regularly inspected and manually tested to assure proper operation.
- In the case of gravity operated vents (dropout panels) the vents should be kept clean of dirt, airborne debris, ice, and snow to insure proper operation.
- Vent spacing should be based on the building occupancy and the heat release potential of the contents as detailed in NFPA 204M dated 1991.
Low Heat Release Occupancy - Vent Area to Floor Area 1:150
Includes buildings or portions of buildings containing scattered small quantities of combustible materials. Typical examples are metal stamping plants, machine shops with dry machining and like operations, foundries, breweries, dairy products processing plants, bakeries, and meat packing plants.
Moderate Heat Release - Vent Area to Floor Area 1:100
Includes buildings or portions of buildings containing moderate quantities of combustible materials which are fairly uniform. Typical examples are automobile assembly plants, leather goods manufacturing, printing and publishing plants, machine shops using combustible oil coolants, and hydraulic fluids or similar hazards.
High Heat Release Occupancy - Vent Area to Floor Area 1:50
Includes building or portions of buildings containing either hazardous operations or concentrated quantities of combustible materials or both. Typical examples are painting departments, oil quenching departments, chemical plants, paper mills, and rubber products manufacturing plants.
We would be happy to provide you with more statistical data and information pertaining to your ventilation requirements. We also have product specifications and drawings available upon request. Please contact us through the below listed information or by completing our online Information Request Form.