3M™ Novec™ 1230 Fire Protection Fluid Fire Wire – Fall 2019

Fire Wire is 3M™ Novec™ 1230 Fire Protection Fluid’s quarterly fire suppression newsletter, developed for specifying engineers, architects and everyone else working in special hazards fire protection.

Protecting a priceless work of art: The St. John’s Bible

Credit: Hill Museum & Manuscript Library/Wayne Torborg, St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN, USA

Inspired to create a work of art to “ignite the spiritual imagination of people throughout the world,” St. John’s University commissioned a team of scribes, scholars and calligraphers who spent 11 years creating a handwritten, illuminated Bible – the Saint John’s Bible.

This work of art needed a worthy permanent home – a place where it could be accessible to thousands of visitors while remaining in a climate-controlled environment and protected from fire and other potential hazards.

Given the need to fit a fire suppression system into a gallery space, concealed from visitors but able to react quickly to help extinguish a fire without leaving any residue behind on the irreplaceable artifacts, it was an easy choice to choose a system with 3M™ Novec™ 1230 Fire Protection Fluid as the extinguishing agent. “Everyone was on board,” said architect Gregory M. Friesen of CSNA Architects. “Each page [of the Bible] is an original. There is not another one anywhere in the world. So it absolutely had to be protected, and for national treasures, world treasures, irreplaceable treasures, Novec 1230 fluid is really the only option.”

READ THE CASE STUDY (PDF, 567 KB)

Get tips on specifying clean agents at SFPE 2019 – and congratulate to 3M’s Paul Rivers on the Arthur B. Guise Medal

Looking to specify a system with specific capabilities? If you have a client looking for a specification including:
- Environmental friendliness
- High margin of occupant safety
- No hard drive damage (for data centers or server rooms)
- Non-branded language (for many government applications)
Come talk with us at the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) Annual Conference & Expo, from October 14-15! We’ll be there at table #51 to help work through your project needs from both a sales and a technical perspective. Or, check out our online tools including sample spec language that can easily be copy and pasted into your spec (or modified for your client’s unique needs)

Plus, 3M’s Paul Rivers will be honored at the SFPE Conference & Expo as the 2019 recipient of the Arthur B. Guise Medal. The Guise Medal is given annually to recognize “eminent achievement in the advancement of the science and technology of fire protection engineering.” Rivers is the co-inventor of 3M™ Novec™ 1230 Fire Protection Fluid, which has helped to bring smart, safe and sustainable fire protection to more than 50,000 installations around the world in less than 20 years, and is deeply committed to mentorship and growth in the fire protection industry.

Want to learn more about the new Fike fire suppression system using 3M Novec 1230 fluid?

For the first time, 3M Novec 1230 fluid will be featured in a Fike Corporation fire suppression system. At the National Fire Protection Association conference in June 2019, Fike announced the launch of this new system. “The most globally recognized sustainable clean agent is now part of the Fike fire suppression product line,” said Jason Jones, Fike’s Global Fire Suppression Product Manager. “We’re excited to bring the market the combined benefits of 3M’s Novec 1230 Fire Protection Fluid and Fike’s Impulse® Valve Technology and customer service.”

Fike fire suppression systems using 3M Novec 1230 fluid – the smart, safe, sustainable clean agent – are now available globally. Learn more about them on the Fike website.

Rotarex Firetec earns global VdS certification for its new CLEANFIRE system using 3M Novec 1230 fluid

Rotarex Firetec’s re-branded CLEANFIRE system, using 3M Novec 1230 fluid and designed for fixed total flooding applications, has earned global approval from VdS Inspection Services. VdS testing incorporates national and international standards as well as insurance requirements and regulations from building authorities to help ensure that fire suppression systems are compliant with global regulations. Visit the Rotarex Firetec website for more information on their pre-engineered, complete fixed total flooding systems using 3M™ Novec™ 1230 fluid.

Fact or Fiction: The cost per pound of a fire suppression agent is often a relatively small part of the overall system total cost of ownership.

Fact. While the agent cost per pound is a highly visible part of the initial system purchase, a simple side by side comparison of agent cost often “misses the forest for the trees” by ignoring real estate, installation and maintenance costs.

For example, while inert gas systems have a relatively low agent cost per pound – because the agent is a blend of common gases – on a volume basis, inert gas systems must deliver a much greater volume of agent into a room because they need to displace as much as 40% of the air, compared to approximately 5% with a system using 3M Novec 1230 fluid.

More agent translates into many more cylinders to hold that agent, plus piping, nozzles, etc. – all of which takes up space that may be limited either by the room design or by the available real estate in the project. In addition, storing high pressure gases typically requires more frequent and rigorous maintenance to ensure that it can withstand the high discharge pressures – increasing the long-tail upkeep costs of the system. Overall, the total cost of system ownership can be more driven by these “hidden” costs than by the agent’s cost per pound.

Fire protection engineers are in a unique position to provide the system owner with counsel on how the system they specify will impact the total cost of ownership over time and to take a thoughtful, long-term perspective on the best solution for their unique needs.

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