Technical Tip

Plenum Rating for AFC's Fire Alarm Cable

Always eager to bring you "hot topics" and "burning issues", we thought it appropriate to address recent developments regarding our Fire Alarm Control Cable, Type FPLP.

In a typical high-rise building or hotel fire, when survival or escape time is measured in minutes, smoke density and flame spread become critical factors. Thick black smoke obscures exit signs and doors and makes breathing very difficult. Highly flammable materials add fuel and act as accelerants.

Modern building codes now require fire rated walls, ceilings, and floors to isolate hazardous areas and enhance protection and safety for lives and property. Reduced smoke emission and flame spread thus become vital design elements.

At AFC we have developed a plenum rated Fire Alarm and Control Cable whose design and construction closely emulates the firefighters tactics: exclude the oxygen, cool the flame, contain and smother the fire and prohibit flame spread to other surfaces.

At Underwriters Laboratories test facilities in Northbrook, Il, AFC's Red Fire Alarm Cable successfully passed the "Flame-Propagation, Smoke Density Test", UL910, or more commonly known as the "Steiner Tunnel Test". The cables were set in a rack and subjected to a 300,000 BTU/hr methane flame driven by a 240-ft/min forced air draft for 20 minutes.

Our FPLP/MC Cable exhibited very low flame spread and smoke density values, in fact, less than half the maximum permissible values allowed by UL. In earlier tests at the same laboratory, our FACC also passed UL's Fire Wall Penetration Test, UL1479 and is now 1, 2, and 3-Hour Fire Rated in walls, ceilings and floor assemblies.

The Red FPLP/MC Cable can be used in multi-purpose applications including risers and is equally suitable for use in plenum-type environmental air handling spaces per NEC Section 300-22(c) and 760-51(d).