Fire sprinkler

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This article is about the device discharging the water. For the complete system, see fire sprinkler
system.

A fire sprinkler mounted on a ceiling

A fire sprinkler or sprinkler head is the component of a fire sprinkler system that discharges water
when the effects of a fire have been detected, such as when a predetermined temperature has been
exceeded. Fire sprinklers are extensively used worldwide, with over 40 million sprinkler heads fitted
each year. In buildings protected by properly designed and maintained fire sprinklers, over 99% of
fires were controlled by fire sprinklers alone. [1][2][3]

Contents

 1History
 2US regulations
o 2.1Quick Response Sprinklers
 3Operation
 4Types
o 4.1ESFR
 5See also
 6References
 7External links

History[edit]
In 1812, British inventor Sir William Congreve patented a manual sprinkler system using perforated
pipes along the ceiling.[4][5] When someone noticed a fire, a valve outside the building could be opened
to send water through the pipes.[6] It was not until a short time later that, as a result of a large furniture
factory that repeatedly burned down, Hiram Stevens Maxim was consulted on how to prevent a
recurrence and invented the first automatic fire sprinkler. It would douse the areas that were on fire
and report the fire to the fire station. Maxim was unable to sell the idea elsewhere, though when the
patent expired, the idea was used.[7][8][clarification needed]
Henry S. Parmalee of New Haven, Connecticut created and installed the first automatic fire sprinkler
system in 1874, using solder that melted in a fire to unplug holes in the otherwise sealed water pipes.
[9]
 He was the president of Mathusek Piano Works, and invented his sprinkler system in response to
exorbitantly high insurance rates. Parmalee patented his idea and had great success with it in the
U.S., calling his invention the "automatic fire extinguisher". [10] He then traveled to Europe to
demonstrate his method to stop a building fire before total destruction.
Parmalee's invention did not get as much attention as he had planned, as most people could not
afford to install a sprinkler system. Once he realized this, he turned his efforts to educating insurance
companies about his system. He explained that the sprinkler system would reduce the loss ratio, and
thus save money for the insurance companies. He knew that he could never succeed in obtaining
contracts from the business owners to install his system unless he could ensure for them a
reasonable return in the form of reduced premiums.
In this connection, he was able to enlist the interest of two men, who both had connections in the
insurance industry. The first of was Major Hesketh, a cotton spinner in a large business in Bolton who
was also Chairman of the Bolton Cotton Trades Mutual Insurance Company. The Directors of this
Company and its Secretary, Peter Kevan, took an interest in Parmalee’s early experiments. Hesketh
got Parmalee his first order for sprinkler installations in the cotton spinning mills of John Stones &
Company, at Astley Bridge, Bolton. This was followed soon afterwards by an order from the
Alexandra Mills, owned by John Butler of the same town.

An 1897 Grinnell automatic sprinkler advertisement

Although Parmalee got two sales through its efforts, the Bolton Cotton Trades Mutual Insurance
Company was not a very big company outside of its local area. Parmalee needed a wider influence.
He found this influence in James North Lane, the Manager of the Mutual Fire Insurance Corporation
of Manchester. This company was founded in 1870 by the Textile Manufacturers' Associations
of Lancashire and Yorkshire as a protest against high insurance rates. They had a policy of
encouraging risk management and more particularly the use of the most up-to-date and scientific
apparatus for extinguishing fires. Even though he put tremendous effort and time into educating the
masses on his sprinkler system, by 1883 only about 10 factories were protected by the Parmalee
sprinkler.
Back in the U.S., Frederick Grinnell, who was manufacturing the Parmalee sprinkler, designed the
more effective Grinnell sprinkler. He increased sensitivity by removing the fusible joint from all contact
with the water, and, by seating a valve in the center of a flexible diaphragm, he relieved the low-fusing
soldered joint of the strain of water pressure. By this means, the valve seat was forced against the
valve by the water pressure, producing a self-closing action. The greater the water pressure, the
tighter the valve. The flexible diaphragm had a further and more important function. It caused the
valve and its seat to move outwards simultaneously until the solder joint was completely severed.
Grinnell got a patent for his version of the sprinkler system. [11] He also took his invention to Europe,
where it was a much bigger success than the Parmalee version. Eventually, the Parmalee system
was withdrawn, opening the path for Grinnell and his invention. [12]

US regulations[edit]
Fire sprinkler application and installation guidelines, and overall fire sprinkler system design
guidelines are provided by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 13, (NFPA) 13D, and
(NFPA) 13R.
Certain states, including California, Pennsylvania and Illinois require sprinklers in at least some new
residential construction.[13]
Fire sprinklers can be automatic or open orifice. Automatic fire sprinklers use a fusible element that
activates at a predetermined temperature. The fusible element either melts or has a frangible liquid-
containing glass bulb that breaks, causing the water pressure in the fire sprinkler piping to push a
plug out of the sprinkler orifice, resulting in water spraying from the orifice. The water stream strikes a
deflector that forms the water into a spray pattern designed in support of the goals of the sprinkler
type (i.e., control or suppression). Modern sprinkler heads are designed to direct spray downwards.
Spray nozzles are available to provide spray in various directions and patterns. The majority of
automatic fire sprinklers operate individually in a fire. Contrary to motion picture representation, the
entire sprinkler system does not activate at the same time, unless the system is a special deluge
type.[14][15]
Open orifice sprinklers are only used in water spray systems or deluge sprinklers systems. They are
identical to the automatic sprinkler on which they are based, with the heat-sensitive operating element
removed.
Automatic fire sprinklers utilizing frangible bulbs follow a standardized color-coding convention
indicating their operating temperature. Activation temperatures correspond to the type of hazard
against which the sprinkler system protects. Residential occupancies are provided with a special type
of fast response sprinkler with the unique goal of life safety (a residential sprinkler has a higher
discharge pattern than that of a standard spray sprinkler and they also have been specifically
developed for discharging water higher on the walls in order to keep ceiling gas temperatures lower).
[16][17]

Quick Response Sprinklers[edit]

The NFPA #13 standard was revised in 1996 to require Quick Response Sprinklers in all buildings
with light hazard occupancy classification.
The 2002 edition of the NFPA #13 standard, section 3.6.1 defines quick response sprinklers as
having a response time index (RTI) of 50 (meter-seconds) 1/2 or less. RTI is a measure of how
thermally responsive the heat-responsive element of the sprinkler is, measured as the time needed to
raise the temperature of the sprinkler bulb to 63% of the temperature of the hot air stream times the
square root of the velocity of the air stream.[18]
The term quick response refers to the listing of the entire sprinkler (including spacing, density and
location) not just the fast responding releasing element. Many standard response sprinklers, such as
extended coverage ordinary hazard (ECOH) sprinklers, have fast responding (low thermal mass
elements) in order to pass their fire tests. Quick response sprinklers are available with standard spray
deflectors, but they are also available with extended coverage deflectors. [19]

QUICK RESPONSE FIRE SPRINKLERS

Quick Response per NFPA 13 Nominal Diameter Norbulb Operating Time in Response Time Index
 RTI < 50 (ms)1/2 in mm Model[20] Seconds (RTI) (ms)1/2

Yes 2.5 N2.5 9 25

Yes 3 N3 11.5 33

Yes 3.3 N3.3 13.5 38

No 5 NF5 23 65

No 5 N5 32 90

Operation[edit]

Standard spray sprinkler head with a blue bulb indicating a high release temperature

Each closed-head sprinkler is held closed by either a heat-sensitive glass bulb (see below) or a two-
part metal link held together with a fusible alloy such as Wood's metal[21] and other alloys with similar
compositions.[22] The glass bulb or link applies pressure to a pipe cap which acts as a plug which
prevents water from flowing until the ambient temperature around the sprinkler reaches the design
activation temperature of the individual sprinkler. Because each sprinkler activates independently
when the predetermined heat level is reached, the number of sprinklers that operate is limited to only
those near the fire, thereby maximizing the available water pressure over the point of fire origin.
The liquid in the glass bulb is color coded to its show temperature rating.

The bulb breaks as a result of the thermal expansion of the liquid inside the bulb.[23] The time it takes
before a bulb breaks is dependent on the temperature. Below the design temperature, it does not
break, and above the design temperature, it breaks, taking less time to break as temperature
increases above the design threshold. The response time is expressed as a response time index
(RTI), which typically has values between 35 and 250 m½s½, where a low value indicates a fast
response.[24] Under standard testing procedures (135 °C air at a velocity of 2.5 m/s), a 68 °C sprinkler
bulb will break within 7 to 33 seconds, depending on the RTI. [25] The RTI can also be specified in
imperial units, where 1 ft½s½ is equivalent to 0.55 m½s½. The sensitivity of a sprinkler can