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In a warehouse, keeping your flue spaces clear is necessary to ensure that your warehouse remains fire safe. As with a fireplace flue they allow heat and smoke to rise and trigger the sprinklers and allow water to pass through the racks. However, this is not an easy task to accomplish as packages tend to have a way of encroaching into these spaces without anyone noticing. If you find yourself in this situation, just know that there are products intended to help keep these objects out of spaces that are off limits. Many people are unsure of the differences between these products. Read on to find out the main differences between a Flue GuardTM and a flue keeper.
Flue GuardTM Prevents Push-Through
The main function of flue guard is to prevent pallets from being pushed through into longitudinal flue spaces or open spaces or adjacent racks. Without this type of guard, pallets may push through and cause adjacent pallets to fall through the rack or into adjacent aisles. The flue guard acts as a pallet rack flue spacer and allows you to control the flue spaces between your racks. This gives you a little bit of extra protection when it comes to any sort of push-through that may occur. Flue guards also keep the flue area clear, allowing heat and smoke to rise and water from a sprinkler system to reach the lowest pallets in the case of a warehouse fire.
Flue Keepers Keep Things Clear
Flue keepers are different in that they create a flue space next to the pallet or transverse flue space.. These products are specifically designed to keep a flue space clear to help you with your fire sprinkler coverage. As such, the difference between these two types of guards is that flue guards will prevent push-through while allowing heat smoke and water to still go through any racks, while flue keepers are only designed to allow heat , smoke and water through the racks.
Which Should You Get?
In general, The NFPA requires that flue spaces remain open and most fire departments require that a physical means of protection is required in the transverse and longitudinal flue spaces. That being said it is left open to the local jurisdiction as to whether either or both are required. For maximum effectiveness of you fire system Rack Safety Products recommends both and the Flue GuardTM as a first choice as it doubles as a pallet back stop preventing pallet push through.
We hope you have enjoyed our overview of some of the main differences between flue guards and flue keepers. If you’re looking to install either of these accessories in your warehouse racking area, be sure to reach out to Rack Safety Products today. We also have a wide variety of other warehouse racking accessories to ensure that we are your one-stop shop for all pallet safety accessories.
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