Thanks Bob, Frozen food on a styrene tray is a Class III per NFPA 13. The issue is the packaged meats are then placed in a larger HDPE plastic tray (12”w x 18” long x 4” high) which alone weighs about 4 lbs. The plastic trays are stacked side by side and one on top of another to create a full pallet load. The tray is a nonexpanded, exposed plastic. The combination of this being in a freezer, nonexpanded, exposed plastic and the storage and ceiling heights are what have been creating the design challenge. Couple that with a client that says they don’t want in-rack sprinklers (what a surprise) and that they’ve got another installation without in-racks and all is peachy with their insurer. I have doubts about code compliance in their “other” installation.
You just gotta love this business……. Craig Prahl | Jacobs | Group Lead/SME – Fire Protection | craig.pr...@jacobs.com<mailto:craig.pr...@jacobs.com> | www.jacobs.com<http://www.jacobs.com/> 1041 East Butler Road Greenville, South Carolina 29606 CONTACT BY: email or MS TEAMS From: Bob Caputo <bcap...@firesprinkler.org> Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2021 1:35 AM To: sprinklerforum@lists.firesprinkler.org Cc: Prahl, Craig/GVL <craig.pr...@jacobs.com> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Sprinkler protection in a freezer warehouse - with plastics Craig, As you know, the commodity classification is based on the product, the packaging and the pallet type. As such, your foam trays have to be taken into account by weight or by volume. NFPA 13, Fig 20.4.3.3(a) and (b) and I don’t have a book with me but pretty sure frozen food on polystyrene trays is listed as a Group A plastic in the annex list…. Not sure NFPA 13 has any dark corners, though the color of the new edition is dark gray ;-) Bob Caputo, Lurking the dark corners of Dubai this week AFSA On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 2:49 AM Prahl, Craig/GVL via Sprinklerforum <sprinklerforum@lists.firesprinkler.org<mailto:sprinklerforum@lists.firesprinkler.org>> wrote: I have searched the from the deepest depths to the highest heights within NFPA 13 for a solution and am coming up empty. We have a freezer warehouse, storing packaged meats on foam trays which are placed in plastic trays. The frozen meat per NFPA 13 is a class III, the kicker is the exposed, expanded plastic tray which represents about 63% of the package load. They claim to only put about 2.5 lbs of meat in a plastic tray that weighs 4.4 lbs. This is pushing us into considering this as a Group A plastic commodity. I have found no system criteria for a freezer warehouse with 22' of racked storage and a 30 ft ceiling/roof height and exposed, unexpanded group A plastic. Any options we find show them as being Wet systems only. I am starting to dig into the FM data sheets but was looking to see if anyone has any insight or if I've missed some option hidden away in the dark corners of NFPA 13. Quell only goes up to Class III commodities. Craig Prahl | Jacobs | Group Lead/SME – Fire Protection | craig.pr...@jacobs.com<mailto:craig.pr...@jacobs.com> | www.jacobs.com<http://www.jacobs.com> 1041 East Butler Road Greenville, South Carolina 29606 CONTACT BY: email or MS TEAMS ________________________________ NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. 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