Good morning,
I’ve got a question for the chamber experts and experienced folk here. Please respond off-line unless it would be to the betterment of the group at large. We’ve just received the results of a business insurance audit. The only area of our building with a fire suppression system/monitored smoke alarm system is the 10m semi-anechoic chamber, essentially an ETS FACT 10 with TDK Closed cell Styrofoam over ferrite tiles. As we were walking through the facility, we had the turntable open, the auditor inquired as to the reason. My response when she asked the questions as to why it was opened was ”I don’t know, I’ll have to look into it”, and then she did not follow up and I did not further answer. The reason to the curious, was to move some auxiliary equipment placed there during testing and to unplug the 160A service to the EUT. We have since received her recommendation letter. In which she recommends “In order to promptly notify the fire department in the event of a fire, an approved fire detection system should be installed in all areas of the building including below the elevated floor in the Semi-anechoic chamber, in accordance with the latest edition of NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm Code, and alarm signals should be automatically transmitted to a UL listed central station or directly to the fire department or public dispatcher.” The general fire detection portion I’ve always wondered why it was never installed, but under the raised floor of the chamber? The questions: 1) Why is a 10m chamber required to have a fire suppression system when testing is monitored (or should be as some of the last posts point out), any personnel in the room have 2 exits, there is normally not any personnel in the chamber, and besides the EUT, is there any combustible material in the room? 2) In the crawl space under the floor, besides the turntable motor, ODE converter, power receptacles and occasionally auxiliary equipment, is there anything that is combustible? Thanks, Doug Kramer Lab Manager NCEE Labs Product Compliance Solutions Phone: 402.472.5880 Toll Free: 1.888.567.6860 Fax: 402.472.5881 Email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> www.nceelabs.com <http://www.nceelabs.com> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail. - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher <[email protected]> David Heald <[email protected]>
