What occupancy type would you consider a building being used for powder coating of metal chassis?

The IBC lists F-2 (Low-Hazard Factory Industrial) as the occupancy for metal fabrication and assembly and basically the fabrication or manufacturing of non-combustible materials in which the processes do not involve a significant fire hazard.

Anything not listed as F-2 would be considered F-1 (Moderate-Hazard Factory Industrial).

In this building they bring in the metal chassis, send them through an oven to warm them up, then send them through another booth to standblast them. Then the chassis are powder-coated before going through a final oven to be cured.

In my opinion and past exeprience with powder coating it can be a pretty hazardous activity with explosive hazard and with finely divided particles. I do know the booth is pretty large for powder coating will need to have fire suppression. The big question is would be consider this building F-1 or F-2 requiring fire suppression throughout, as the building is well over 12,000 sqft in area. 

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An oil field site has a potential for detonation of an equivalent of 180 lb of TNT at its main plant. Determine most nearly the minimum distance where an adjacent oil storage tank would rupture at this energy.
a. 50 ft.
b. 80 ft.
c. 100 ft.
d. 150 ft.

Solution | Posted 10/14/19

Solution | Posted 09/26/19

​In which of the following scenarios is neither explosion protection nor suppression system required?
a. Flammable paint warehouse mixing rooms where open transfer of paint occurs
b. Dust ventilator equipment where the dust density can be above its lower flammability limit
c. Mechanical room where service equipment is subject to explosion
d. All of the above require either explosion protection or suppression systems

Solution | Posted 08/27/19

We manufacture dust collectors and pre-pipe fire sprinklers within them with a couple fusible fittings.

We pressure test the pipe at our shop, however, when a contractor connects to them in the field, are there any code/standard requirements to check the system for leaks after connecting to the system?

We put on our drawings that the contractor should test for leaks, however, we're trying to determine what requirements exist for this application.

​The problem we're running into is that the connection is supposed to be made and checked before installing cartridges. If a leak occurs, the contractor could address and not get the paper cartridges all wet with running water down at the floor. In this last case they didn't, and I'm trying to address future installation of systems and make sure the contractor checks for leaks. 

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I've taken technical writing courses and have experience working with MasterSpec, US Military specifications, vendor specifications, and various ownership standard specifications.

I'm giving an internal training to our younger staff and I'm particularly interested in opinions from contractors and vendors who regularly read a variety of specifications for bidding.

What advice would you give for those who write specifications? I'd be interested in helping train our staff as well as improve myself.

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