[3dem] Sprinklers

Fri Mar 4 08:35:13 PST 2016

To echo John,

In our department at my previous university, we had some grad students tossing aluminum foil footballs. They hit a sprinkler head, removing the wax plug, and it 'rained' for a very long time—enough for it to flow down 4 flights of stairs and ruined a lot of stuff in their lab. You wouldn't think it would be an issue, but it could easily be an issue.

Good luck!
--
Cindi L. Schwartz
Electron Microscopist
Rocky Mountain Labs/NIAID/NIH
903 South 4th Street
Hamilton, MT  59840
240-669-5473
Cindi.Schwartz at NIH.gov<mailto:Cindi.Schwartz at NIH.gov>
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From: John Rubinstein <john.rubinstein at utoronto.ca<mailto:john.rubinstein at utoronto.ca>>
Date: Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 7:32 PM
To: "Xu, Chen" <Chen.Xu at umassmed.edu<mailto:Chen.Xu at umassmed.edu>>
Cc: "3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu<mailto:3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu>" <3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu<mailto:3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu>>
Subject: Re: [3dem] Sprinklers

Hi Chen,

In the standard sprinkle systems used in our 2 year old build (I presume they have been standard technology for a long time) water in a pressurized pipe is held back by a wax plug. If there is a fire in the room, the wax plug melts and the sprinkler starts sprinkling. To me, this arrangement sounds risky for an electron microscope room. Something hitting the sprinkler head could conceivable break the plug and start the flow of water.
Consequently, for our recently built EM suite we used a pre-action system. These are somewhat more expensive than a standard sprinkler but not prohibitively expensive. In a pre-action system the pipes going to the sprinkler head are not filled with water until a  sensor (I think it is smoke detector) triggers the pre-action cabinet to open a valve. If the pre-action system is triggered _and_ the wax plug melts, then the sprinkler douses the room.

I didn’t personally look at our insurance policy, but no one on our design team suggested our insurance would require more - and our building is filled with similarly expensive equipment.

Best regards,
John

--
John Rubinstein
Molecular Structure and Function Program
The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute
686 Bay Street, Rm. 20-9705
Toronto, ON
Canada
M5G 0A4
Tel: (+001) 416-813-7255
Fax: (+001) 416-813-5022
www.sickkids.ca/research/rubinstein<http://www.sickkids.ca/research/rubinstein>

On Mar 3, 2016, at 9:14 PM, Xu, Chen <Chen.Xu at umassmed.edu<mailto:Chen.Xu at umassmed.edu>> wrote:

Dear List,

We are constructing a new facility for a Titan-Krios. Our construction people want to install the usual sprinkler system in case of fire. We are concerned about potential water damage to the microscope if there was a false alarm. We are wondering whether we should consider an inert gas fire suppression system (e.g. argon). Does anyone have experience with such a system (and likely cost)?  Or does everyone just accept the risk of water damage?

Thanks,

—
Chen Xu
CryoEM Core Facility
Umass Med School
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