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D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | 39 Fire Protection Systems as completed units: factory finished, pre-drilled, and ready for installation. Plus, unlike hollow metal frames, Aluflam's frames are narrow, sharp, and blend much better with existing non-rated designs. The importance of consulting is also very much a focus of MCW Consultants Ltd., and MCW principal Rob Gregg notes that with regard to sprinkler design, "We're shifting in recent years to becoming increasingly pro-active. In other words, it used to be that the detailed fire protection design would be completed during construction, almost as an afterthought. Now, however, we lend our expertise much earlier and spend weeks on detailed design work." But what caused the shift from sprinkler design being an afterthought in worst-case scenarios to an early requirement? Gregg isn't certain, but he suggests it took place in the halls of bureaucracy. "The cities of Vancouver and Surrey are trailblazers in requiring detailed sprinkler designs be ready when design permits are submitted," he says. "Whatever the reason, it's a much welcomed development because now there is active dialogue between all parties of a project – and architects love it. In fact, in other jurisdictions where early development of sprinkler systems isn't required we offer the service anyway, and the response has been very strong." Umbra Engineering, a sister company to Williams Engineering, specialises in life safety, security, and fire detection and protection; it provides design, engi- neering, and commissioning solutions in virtually every building sector from highly secure facilities to hospitals, from shopping centres to airports, from mixed-use buildings to mines, and from universities to policing environments. On the premise that life safety systems are more complex than ever and require full integration, Umbra has been focusing its attention on promoting and teaching the particulars of the National Standard of Canada's CAN/ULC-S1001 Integrated Systems Testing of Fire Protection and Life Safety Systems process. Joseph Rebstock, electrical engineer for Umbra, says, "S1001 will play a huge role in how fire protection systems are documented and tested, and its emergence is most welcome because given the complexity and diversity of these systems, at present the different people responsible for the different compo- nents wind up testing their own particular component, but there's no guarantee all elements of the entire system will work together." Rebstock adds that CAN/ULC-S536 and S537, which are the key standard to which fire alarms are tested, only test to the relay or input to a fire alarm sys- tem: it does not test the function of the interconnected system. "This left a large margin open for failure and was a danger to life safety," he says. Umbra is staging S1001 learning seminars that are reportedly growing in popularity, partly because they drill down into specifics such as smoke control and door hold-open devices. "Adopting S1001 will be a great benefit to the build- ing sector, and the proper documentation of all life saving systems contained in a facility will be a huge asset down the road when systems need to be replaced or upgraded," Rebstock says. Finally, the customization of consulting services is a key aspect of fire protec- tion for facilities governed by stringent regulatory requirements. Such is the case with the Cameco Fuel Manufacturing facility in Ontario. Safety on site is critical to Cameco and full compliance is required at all times, therefore it required a service provider adept at customizing service offerings and reporting standards to match what is required by the company's governing bodies, and Vipond Inc. was the solution. Vipond consulted with Cameco operations staff and insurance providers to learn their specific service, inspection and reporting needs, and then developed a specific tailored process that included performing monthly/annual inspections on fire alarm systems, extinguishers, fire hoses, sprinkler and security systems. Vipond also committed to assist in all on going projects, in whatever capacity necessary, such as consulting, engineering, and fire alarm/sprinkler work. As the largest authorized notifier engineered system distributor in Canada, Vipond is also heavily relied upon to provide fire protection for new build and retrofit projects, one case in point being the Sun Life Financial Centre in Ontario. This commercial complex consists of three towers interconnected by a shopping concourse on ground floor and four levels of underground parking, and Vipond was tasked with performing a major fire alarm retrofit of the entire complex without disturbing operations as well as migrating from the old system to the new system with no downtime. Vipond responded by providing a Notifier-Net Fire Alarm System consisting of 21 Notifier Onyx series panels (which were installed first using new wiring), a Central Alarm and Control Facility, and a Graphical ONYX Works workstation. The emergency evacuation portion of the project used distributed digital ampli- fiers and automatic digitized messages. New addressable devices were installed throughout the building, and existing speakers were reused. After the system was fully configured, the transfer from old to new was performed one floor at a time during the night shift, as was testing and sounding of alarms. A Aluflam.indd 1 2018-11-12 9:36 March 2022 ANNUAL INDUSTRY FEATURE: Steel Building Systems Book your ad space now: | Dan Chapman 604.473.0316