Before the CPVC pipe changed the fire sprinkler protection industry, steel piping was the material of choice for fire sprinkler systems worldwide. Its strength and resistance to extreme heat made the case for using steel a logical choice.
30 years ago, BlazeMaster® CPVC piping and fittings revolutionized the industry for the better. The lightweight thermoplastic has been the preferred choice for fire sprinkler specifiers, designers and installers because of its significant advantages over steel. The first and most obvious is cost; steel prices fluctuate and are typically much higher than that of CPVC.
Installation costs and time are also reduced using CPVC due to its light weight, easy fabrication and flexibility as opposed to steel, which often requires more labour and special tools – including torches, which can be hazardous on a jobsite.
Then there’s the issue of system maintenance. Just like any mechanical system, a fire sprinkler system must be maintained and checked to ensure that it is ready and available to perform when an emergency occurs. In this respect, BlazeMaster CPVC scores highly against steel.
Maintenance 101
Corrosion and scale buildup are a primary maintenance concern for a steel fire protection system.
The combination of water (constant moisture), water treatment chemicals (such as chlorine or chloramines) and oxygen can, over time, cause corrosion that leads to pinhole leaks in steel pipe fire sprinkler systems. In some cases, this has occurred in less than two years. While initially this may not cause the total system failure, it will for sure provoke damages to the building. Depending on the severity of the leaks and how fast they are detected, the whole steel pipe fire sprinkler system can fail and need to be replaced. Pipes with pinhole leaks, in fact, must be replaced, not patched, to ensure system integrity. It is self-explanatory how maintenance time and costs increase as repair is required.
Corrosion in steel piping fire protection systems is one reason that the nitrogen generating industry and related monitoring and hardware devices have evolved. The inert nitrogen reduces potentially corrosive compressed air in the system. This, however, increases further the already high costs of maintenance of a steel system.
In another scenario, scale build-up from the minerals associated with hard water can attach to steel pipe walls, often near fittings and corners. This can limit the flow of water or, worse, prevent the flow of water entirely. This requires a costly de-scaling operation, the frequency of which depends on the levels of hardness in the water.
The alternative: use CPVC piping, which resists scaling and corrosion for up to 50 years of service life – even in salt air environments with fluctuating water pH balances.
Additional CPVC Benefits
CPVC piping can deliver more water in a smaller diameter pipe to fire sprinkler heads than steel pipe. This is proven by the Hazen-Williams Coefficient, an empirical relationship used in the design of fire sprinkler systems that relates the flow of water in a pipe with the physical properties of the pipe and the pressure drop caused by friction. This not only saves money, it also can allow CPVC piping runs to fit into smaller spatial gaps than steel piping, should this become a design concern.
CPVC is also capable of standing up to extreme heat and pressure. It does not melt or drip in a fire, and it does not allow a fire to spread. Simply put, BlazeMaster Fire Protection Systems help save lives and have done so for more than 30 years around the world.
To learn more about the advantages of BlazeMaster CPVC compared to steel, download our Steel vs. CPVC Commercial Fire Protection Guide.
