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Author Topic: One hour fire projection in booth Kevin Roudebush Film Handler Posts: 29 From: Salem, OR, USA Registered: Sep 2003 posted 11-13-2003 01:55 PM                     I'm looking for solutions to create a 1hr fire barrier protection to the booth relative to the projector windows. I can create the protection in the rest of the walls but am looking for the best solution through the projection window. Two ideas already looked at are 1hr fire glass and fire window shutters. Has anyone used the glass? Who was the manufacturer and what cost? (The stuff I've seen has a tint to it. will it impair the presentation?) Window shutters hooked up to a release mechanism that will close when the fire alarm goes off seems cumbersome and expensive. Are there other solutions?  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 11-13-2003 02:00 PM                        Metal fire doors hooked to fusible links are the way to go. You're definitely going to lose light projecting through fire rated glass.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-13-2003 02:02 PM                        What Daryl said. Are you planning to run nitrate film? If so, have you checked to make sure that it is legal in your area? Be sure to have a release for the fire shutters next to the booth door in addition to the fusable links.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 11-13-2003 02:10 PM                        Check out the technical paper "The Care and Handling of Nitrate Film at UCLA's Unique Projection Facilities", by Jess Daily, in the June 1990 SMPTE Journal, Volume 99, page 453. They used custom fire doors and shutters.  |  IP: Logged Kevin Roudebush Film Handler Posts: 29 From: Salem, OR, USA Registered: Sep 2003 posted 11-13-2003 02:33 PM                     No, no nitrate film. I'm going to serve alcohol and code requires that you install a sprinkler system if the is more that 5000 sq ft of continuous space. So, it is less expensive to make a one hour fire wall and divide the theatre, three houses and a lobby into three areas, all less than 5000 sq ft. So, the projection window for two of the theatres need to be set up with whatever to make a firewall separation. Do you have a make or manufacture for the shutters you mentioned? Any idea what they will cost to get installed?  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 11-13-2003 03:10 PM                    I don't know if they are made anymore but you could probably have some made up by a metal shop easily enough. The shutter itself need only be a flat steel plate maybe 1/8" to 3/16" thick or so. It's arranged to slide in a pair of channels on both sides and continuing across the bottom. These can be fabricated from two layers of sheet steel of similar thickness--on mine (no longer in use) they are about 1 3/4" wide--separated by pieces about an inch wide that are a bit thicker than the shutter. This creates the channel that the shutter plate can slide up and down on. I'm sure a metal shop could cut these pieces and weld the channel pieces together at little cost. Mine are attached to the port assembly but you can work out how it interfaces with your fire wall. Then of course you need a control system. The shutters can be hung with a rope with a fusible link connecting to a hook directly above or you can have some sort of fancier system. Some booths used to have a long pipe with hooks for all the port shutters arranged so that if a link elsewhere melted a weight would rotate the pipe to the point where all the rings holding the shutters would be dumped off the hooks and all shutters would come down. In your case you probably will just have two ports per booth so something simpler would suffice  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 11-13-2003 03:13 PM                        Some vendors of fire shutters: http://www.alpinedoors.com/csfd.htm http://www.sterlingshutters.com/fireshutters.htm http://www.acmedoor.com/prod_bgfs.htm http://www.ritedoors.co.uk/ http://www.cornelliron.com/counterf.html http://www.cooksondoor.com/newpages/products/d04.html Hope this helps.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-13-2003 09:23 PM                     THe best solution is to use the accordian airduct fire dampers Thet can be fitteded into the wall frame and serve as the prot frame  |  IP: Logged Peter Hall Master Film Handler Posts: 314 From: London, UK Registered: Dec 2000 posted 11-14-2003 04:53 PM                        Hi - Steel shutters are OK, as are Carbon Arcs and MOdel T Fords, but we stopped using them years ago here. Port glass is typically Pyradyr or Pyrex - on paper optically crap glass but goes cloudy if theres a fire. Works ! Some local authorities still require shutters but Westminster (the nastiest) even relaxed this for the new Curzon Mayfair, as long as we agreed "not to show films of a flammable nature" (on DP75s with plastic everywhere - mmmm)  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 11-15-2003 07:21 AM                        By metal fire door I meant an accordian airduct fire damper, like Gord said.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 11-15-2003 11:40 AM                     I would opt for the old style fire shutters that were used in projection booths years ago that were tripped with a fuse link or a handle. As far as the walls are concerned, I think I remember hearing somewhere that 2 layers of 5/8 inch sheetrock will provide a 1 hour fire barrier. We went through this once with the fire department when a stock room was condemned.  |  IP: Logged John Walsh Film God Posts: 2490 From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way Registered: Oct 1999 posted 11-15-2003 11:41 AM                     The idea of a simple steel shutter seems easy to make, so I'd first try Steve's suggestion of having them made locally. What will the walls be made of? I mean if the entire wall has to be remade to meet code, is that cheaper than a sprinkler?  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 11-15-2003 11:48 AM                     John, all new construction of buildings occupied by the public require sprinkler systems up here in Washington State. Three theaters I was involved with during the construction mode required sprinkler systems in the projection booth, auditoriums, lobby and restrooms.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 11-15-2003 12:51 PM                        You could have a really hard time getting custom made steel "sheet" port shutters passed. Prove that they are fire rated... good luck.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-15-2003 02:15 PM                     Any opening in a fire rated semising wall must be protected with a UL or ULc approved fire damper or closing device It would be virtually impossible to get a UL approval with out destructive testing of the homemade device in the finished wall  |  IP: Logged

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