Victaulic, a global producer of mechanical pipe joining and fire protection systems, has recently made available its LP-46 Low Pressure Storage Sprinkler, an innovative technology that provides reduced pressure requirements and significant system design and labor installation savings.

Featuring a K-Factor of 25.2 imp/36.8 S.I., the LP-46 pendent sprinkler is designed to control fires in single, double and multiple row rack storage units without the need for in-rack sprinklers.

The LP-46 is a control mode specific application (CMSA), standard response, pendent sprinkler and is Factory Mutual Approved for up to cartoned, unexpanded Group A plastic commodities stored up to 10.7m, with a ceiling height of 12.2m.

“Our LP-46 sprinkler is specially designed to offer maximum fire protection, while delivering significant cost savings by decreasing the amount of materials and labor required for storage room projects,” said Gennaro Sposato, regional manager, Victaulic Australia.

The pressure requirements (maximum of 175 psi/1200 kPa) are low enough that the LP-46 can reduce or eliminate the need for a fire pump in some applications, affording significant cost savings.

The low end head pressures reduce system discharge requirements up to 40% for 9-12m ceilings and up to 70% for ceilings that are up to 9m in height as compared to traditional ESFR products.”

Additional benefits of the low end head pressure requirements include potential labor and materials savings as the LP-46 can decrease a system’s pipe size needs, for example, mains and branches can be reduced from 200mm to 150mm or 100 mm to 76mm. The LP-46 sprinkler also features an easy system design, factored upon a twelve head calculation with 3m x 3m spacing, which results in as much as 20% reduction in the number of sprinkler heads typically necessary.

The LP-46 utilises a durable standard response fusible link and is designed to distribute water in a pattern covering 9.3sqm. per sprinkler. This is very effective in controlling rapidly growing storage fires.