Monthly Technical Articles
Explore our collection of articles written by engineers, for engineers. Categorized based on the COPE approach to assessing risk within a facility, the archives below contain essential information for the development of engineers in our field.
Fear vs. Prevention
Two years ago a leading article with a major head line in the USA Today stated "Fierce Hurricane Season Predicted." The article went on to say that an "extremely active" hurricane season was to occur...
Lift Trucks - Choosing the Correct Type and Recommendations for Associated Hazards
Driver and safety training for lift truck operators are very important to industrial plant or distribution warehouse managers and owners for obvious reasons, with personnel safety at the top of the...
NFPA 3 Commissioning and Integrated Test of Fire Protection and Life Safety Systems
This is a new NFPA recommended practice, as opposed to standard. It outlines a systematic approach to provide documented confirmation that the fire protection and/or life-safety systems, as...
Flood Protection
Recent studies have shown that anywhere from 10 to 25% of facilities can experience flooding. Flood maps can give an indication of the flood exposure for a facility. However, there could be errors in...
Legislative Review An Overview of Codes, Standards and Regulations in CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, IL, MA, MI, MS, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA and TX
In their November 2011 issue, Sprinkler Age magazine featured its Annual Legislative Review for the United States and Canada. This summary of legislation and codes offers an overview of regulations...
Variable-Speed Fire Pumps
Booster pumps are often needed to boost the pressure of the city water supply to make it adequate for sprinkler system designs. However, an unintended result could be obtaining pressures that are too...
Changes to FM Global Data Sheet 8-9 - Storage of Class 1, 2, 3, 4 and Plastic Commodities (2011)
Between March 2010 and now, FM Global has made two revisions to this Data Sheet. In September 2010 the following revisions were made: The maximum linear and area spacing for K25.2EC (K360EC)...
International Building and Fire Code Adoption - By State
The table below has been published by the International Codes Council (www.iccsafe.org). It is up to date as of July 15, 2011. STATE INTERNATIONAL BUILDING CODE...
Automatic Fire Protection for Automated Tape Libraries / Silos in Information Technology Equipment Rooms
They go by many names - computer rooms, server rooms, main distribution frame (MDF) rooms, data centers, electronic data processing (EDP) centers, information technology (IT) equipment rooms, etc.;...
Protecting Your COPE and Identifying your Commodity Will Help Reduce Fire Loss in Large Buildings
What is COPE? It is the Construction Occupancy Protection and Exposure risk for each building. Significant fire damage in large buildings occurs approximately 300 times per year in the United...
SPRINKLER PROTECTION IN NON-STORAGE OCCUPANCIES
FM Global Data Sheet 3-26, Fire Protection Water Demand for Nonstorage Sprinklered Properties, is used to determine sprinkler system designs and hose demands for non-storage occupancies, which are...
Vapor Degreasers
Metal cleaning can be performed through spraying/immersion in solvents, corrosive solutions and vapor degreasers, through mechanical cleaning, and, by heating treating in oil or molten salt baths...