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Home My WebLink AboutAPPEALS BOARD MATERIALS - 05-00152 - Premier Powder Coating - RemodelPremier Powderoat"ng Custom Fabrication, LLC Appeals Board Materials City of Rexburg 31 January 2006 Prepared by: Craig L. Po rier Business Manager, Premier Powder Coating & Custom Fabncation, LLC �i POWDER 0V'I *e COATED T UGH or P 115 North 2"d West *Rexburg •Idaho•83440 Shop: 208-356-3263 • Fax: 208-359-5325 • Leo: 20&200 -COAT (2628) O Craig: 208-200-3006 Y m i 4r—s I - A7 V, imp= AT F 1p 16 I V. I Omni IL ,bpi OM 3 ey AT F 1p 16 I V. I Omni IL ,bpi OM 3 ALL AL. Ar 711L ... — , 1 , : '-, —, 6 j. Moor.. A I "CAT JIM z • 01, vVem o �41 Ic lk 113 -Ala ow r i kLE 41 jum I'm 12.2us" I—T ell L 1 06, dew.. hL ki if. ar pw I ALL AL. Ar 711L ... — , 1 , : '-, —, 6 j. Moor.. A I "CAT JIM z • 01, vVem o �41 Ic lk 113 -Ala ow r i kLE 41 jum I'm 12.2us" I—T ell L 1 06, dew.. hL ki if. ar pw 0 N i cu M w r� no L 0 ■ PA > LLJ Liki 1-4 Lli (4 CZ Premier Powder Coating & Custom Fabrication, LLC November 23, 2005 Val Christensen, Building Official 12 North Center PO Box 280 Rexburg, ID 83440 Re: Oven and Powder Booth Fire Protectioll Dear Val: The purpose of this letter is to provide the rationale for our position that fire sprinklers are not required for the oven and powder booth. Oven - Chapter 2, Industrial Ovens, of the 2003 International Fire Code IFC} defines a Class B Furnace as "An omen or fumace that has feat utilization equipment operating at approximately atmospheric pressure wherein there are no flammable volatiles or combustible material being .heated." Our oven falls under this definition since our manual operation is only capable of powder coating metal substrates. The powders we will use contain no volatiles and are not combustible. - Section 2106.1, Required Protection, states: "Class A and Class B ovens which contain, or are utilized for the processing of combustible materials Thal] be protected by an approved automatic fire- extinguishing system complying with Chapter 9." Applying this to our Class B oven, since it doesn-ot contain nor, is utilized for the processing of combustible materials an approved automatic fixe-extm*guishing system is not required. This view of the requirement is supported by Chapter 9 of the IFC and by, industrial application around the industry. Section 903*3..J,,I..l Exempt Locations, states that., Automatic sprinklers shall not be required -in the following rooms or areas...4. In rooms or areas that are of noncombustible construction with wholly " noncombustible contents.It is noted that this exemption applies, "... where such rooms or areas are protected with an approved automatic fire defection system in accordance with Section 9Q7,2. We will meet that qualifier. Industrial oven manufacturers routinely offer Class B ovens that da not include the option of an automatic fire suppression system. They can be ordered with various types of automatic fzre suppress�vn systems integral to the oven. If all Class B ovens were required to contain such protection then they could not be purchased without it and still be 1AW NFPA requirements. industrial ovens installed in the local region also support this interpretation of the code. Powder booth - Section 1507,g Fire Protection, stats that, "Areas used for powder coating shall be, protected by an appxOved automatic fire -extinguishing system complying with Chapter 9"'. Relative to Chapter 9, the previously mentioned exemption applies here as well. Even if one broadly interprets area to be the building, Section 903.2.3 Group F-1., only requires automatic sprinklers if the fire area exceeds 12,000 sq. deet. (the powder coating buiIdxng is fess than 121,000 sq. ft.). Chapter 9 has no requirement for the lower hazard occupancy of F-2 whack was decided earlier for our occupancy. 115 North 2"d West •Rexburg, !C7 8344 . (20$) 356-3263 9FAX (208) 529-3006 POWDER COATE D TOUGHO�04 o Premier Powder Coating & Custom Fabrication, LLC November 23, 2005 Val Christensen, Building Official 12 North Center PO Box 280 Rexburg, ID 83440 Re: Oven and Powder Booth Fire Protectioll Dear Val: The purpose of this letter is to provide the rationale for our position that fire sprinklers are not required for the oven and powder booth. Oven - Chapter 2, Industrial Ovens, of the 2003 International Fire Code IFC} defines a Class B Furnace as "An omen or fumace that has feat utilization equipment operating at approximately atmospheric pressure wherein there are no flammable volatiles or combustible material being .heated." Our oven falls under this definition since our manual operation is only capable of powder coating metal substrates. The powders we will use contain no volatiles and are not combustible. - Section 2106.1, Required Protection, states: "Class A and Class B ovens which contain, or are utilized for the processing of combustible materials Thal] be protected by an approved automatic fire- extinguishing system complying with Chapter 9." Applying this to our Class B oven, since it doesn-ot contain nor, is utilized for the processing of combustible materials an approved automatic fixe-extm*guishing system is not required. This view of the requirement is supported by Chapter 9 of the IFC and by, industrial application around the industry. Section 903*3..J,,I..l Exempt Locations, states that., Automatic sprinklers shall not be required -in the following rooms or areas...4. In rooms or areas that are of noncombustible construction with wholly " noncombustible contents.It is noted that this exemption applies, "... where such rooms or areas are protected with an approved automatic fire defection system in accordance with Section 9Q7,2. We will meet that qualifier. Industrial oven manufacturers routinely offer Class B ovens that da not include the option of an automatic fire suppression system. They can be ordered with various types of automatic fzre suppress�vn systems integral to the oven. If all Class B ovens were required to contain such protection then they could not be purchased without it and still be 1AW NFPA requirements. industrial ovens installed in the local region also support this interpretation of the code. Powder booth - Section 1507,g Fire Protection, stats that, "Areas used for powder coating shall be, protected by an appxOved automatic fire -extinguishing system complying with Chapter 9"'. Relative to Chapter 9, the previously mentioned exemption applies here as well. Even if one broadly interprets area to be the building, Section 903.2.3 Group F-1., only requires automatic sprinklers if the fire area exceeds 12,000 sq. deet. (the powder coating buiIdxng is fess than 121,000 sq. ft.). Chapter 9 has no requirement for the lower hazard occupancy of F-2 whack was decided earlier for our occupancy. 115 North 2"d West •Rexburg, !C7 8344 . (20$) 356-3263 9FAX (208) 529-3006 POWDER Oppp COATED V:V; TOUGHS r #+ R Premier Powder Coating & Custom fabrication, LLC Page 2 - Re: Oven. and Powder Booth Fire Protection Industrial applications are also consistent with this interpretation of the code requirements. For example, in The Powder Coating Manual, page IV/4 it states, "In the United States, automatic systems always require a fire detection system to disable the equipment if a fire is detected. The flame detection system provides protection against fire. If a flame,. spark or arc occur, the system either warns the operator or turns the powder supply and the power off so that there is no fuel for a serious firs." Similarly, powder booth manufacturers contain statements such as the following on their marketing materials: To meed the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Guidelines for safety, the VORTECHPLUS Series booth comes equipped with a flame detection unit for automatic gun applications (marketing brochure from I.TWGema) Applications in the local area are also consistent with this interpretation. The manual powder coating operations are not protected by automatic sprinklers. Continuous, automated powder coating operations ars protected with automatic fire protection systems. The rationale is clear when one considers the science behind powder coating materials. The pigment is mixed with non-volatile resins and contained in fine particles. The particles are fire enough that when mixed with aux in the right proportion they are combustible, and only then. Booths are required to be designed so that the atmosphere in the booth is maintained at X50% of the combustible limit. Consequently, a manual booth is not defined as a "spray area" per Chapter 15 of the IFC {An area in which dangerous quantities of Flammable vapors or combustible residues, dusts or deposits are present... }. The combustible dust region is limited to a small balloon size area exiting the gun. In a manual booth a single gun is used and the operator is in constant observation of the area of concern. If a spam were to ignite the dust the operator would release the trigger and the flame would extinguish. In an automatic booth multiple guns are used (sometimes hundreds) and the combined combustible dust region is considered dangerous for two reasons, 1) the quantity and 2) the fact that an operator is not in constant observation to detect an ignition. I would be glad to discuss this further and appreciate your timely consideration of this matter in light of the scheduled arrival of the equipment supplier for final check-out. Sincerely, Craig L. Porter, P -E. Chief Engineer cc: Brad Johnson, Fire Inspector 115 North 2"¢ West •Rexburg, IQ 83440 s (SDS) 356-3263 * FAX (208) 529-3006 r _s 1 11 2003 Internativnal Building Code (IBC) , Intent of Cade: ".. ,founded on principles intended to establish nrovi��nq 0��,c,�+ori+ lI7Yf� +�,a building code that ad�ec uatelvrotocts FireArea exceed 1 2000 q ft Automatic sprinkler ens not require 1B C 903.2.3. 1; IF 903.2.3, 1 + + 4 17. 1 (emphasis added) 10%. Factory Industrial F-1Classification Moderate IBC 306 Hid wer coating building I classified as -� L Ham and occupies 6336sa ft F-2 Low HazW Automaticsprinklers not required 903; IFC 903.2) — F-2 not required area because .F - does ".,.not involve a significant ��:rr hazard . . , JBC . 7 06.9;Definitions, pg. .18) 2403 InternationaI :dire Code (IFC) — Intent of Code "...providing a reasonable level of life safety and property protection from the hazards of fire, explosion or dangerous condi tiar�s..." IFS' ��01.3 Industrial Ovens ChaiDter 21 Cost of installing �.ytornatic sprinklers:6 upgraue main to b in Ua) $100/ft X 850 ft = $85K Sprinkle building @ $2.25/sq ft X 6336 sq ft = $14.3K (ROM estimate by Lamar at 3-D Firs Protection) f-_- _. •.•_... ..�v vvwiV��74V 11L YY 11.11 Ljj�i! �51W[}P ri ►Jl ublic health. safetv_ and wPffnrP Pv-ofz-re� (emphasis added) 10%. Factory Industrial F-1Classification Moderate IBC 306 Hid wer coating building I classified as -� L Ham and occupies 6336sa ft F-2 Low HazW Automaticsprinklers not required 903; IFC 903.2) — F-2 not required area because .F - does ".,.not involve a significant ��:rr hazard . . , JBC . 7 06.9;Definitions, pg. .18) 2403 InternationaI :dire Code (IFC) — Intent of Code "...providing a reasonable level of life safety and property protection from the hazards of fire, explosion or dangerous condi tiar�s..." IFS' ��01.3 Industrial Ovens ChaiDter 21 Cost of installing �.ytornatic sprinklers:6 upgraue main to b in Ua) $100/ft X 850 ft = $85K Sprinkle building @ $2.25/sq ft X 6336 sq ft = $14.3K (ROM estimate by Lamar at 3-D Firs Protection) 2003 International Fire Code (IFC Flammable Finishes Chapter 15 In addition to the application of flammable or cambustime pains, vamihrt, Gmo-. tllu D.avFkw includes"...The application of combustible powders when applied by powder spray guns, electrostatic powder spray guns. IFC 1501.1.3 No SprayedNoncontinuos area � 9sgft Yes I 1504.1.4.1 Limited spray area (if ventilation and wiring requirements meta therefore automatic fire protection not required. 1FC 1504J.4 ( required to np1 ithV 1504.6 Fire Protect' on Areas. used for powder Yes coating shall be protected by an approved . t i t fffe- extinguishing system complying with Chapter IFC 1507, Fire Record for Powder Coatings Combustible on ti ti n, process Automatic sprinkler system not required 1BC 903.2.11;IFC go3.,.1 Appendix B of NFPA 33 Standard for Spray Application, Using Flammable or Combustible Materials "Loss ��perience indicates that where provisions of this standard were followed a typicctL fire in a powder system was confined to the powder spray pattern of the guns. when powder supply is shut off, burning stops. Residues within a spray both are extremely difficult to ignite and virtually never participate in the fire when the fast -acting flame detectors referred to in Section 7.S function normally. . . V) Note that Section 7.5 is "Protection for Automated Powder Application Equipment' Cost of installing a dry automatic fire suppression system for the manual powder spray booth is approximately $2500 tow OMW WMW L _- 1 Manual vs. Automatic Powder Coating Manual Booth Typical Powder Envelope Automatic Booth m rb EIS r L.L slY i air No 10 Y .� lb In M al �7 W !4 1t r<3 .A It m 4 161 L{ r R m r - 1.7m R7 so