Week Two Highlights!

By: The NFSA ‘26 Interns: Jeremiah Allen, Wiley Hensley, Brooke Marshall, and Brookelynn Weinberg

Week 2

Viking

Our second week started off on Sunday, when we met at NFSA HQ to travel for our first business trip with the NFSA! During this trip we went to Michigan to tour the Viking Corporation facilities in Hastings and Caledonia. We then traveled to Illinois, where we toured Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in Northbrook.

On Monday, we started our day with a tour of the Viking Corporation Hastings Plant. There, we got to see the manufacturing of sprinklers and the milling of VXR valves. We also were able to witness the hand assembly of smaller sprinkler orders and the stamping of deflectors. During the tour we observed quality and redundancy tests, such as bulb and pressure testing, that ensure the sprinklers operate properly. Later in the tour, they took us to watch a corner residential burn demonstration. After this, we traveled to their Caledonia location where we saw more manufacturing, but with newer assembly lines. We also were able to see where they do a lot of their spray pattern testing of fire sprinklers. Later in the day, they took us to their flow room where they operated various types of sprinklers to show us the development of sprinkler spray patterns and what the different types of spray patterns are used for. We then toured their riser lab with wet systems, dry systems, deluge systems, and preaction systems. On the tour we got to see their research and development lab with corrosion, pressure, heat, and other forms of tests. To end our day, we participated in their VR set up where we got to practice tripping and resetting risers before trying it in person.

On Tuesday, we headed back to the Caledonia location. During the first half of the day, Shaun Kramer, Senior Director of Technical Services and Training, taught us about the essentials of a fire sprinkler system. During the second half of the day, Caleb Case, Manager of Technical Services and Training, taught us about different types of fire sprinkler systems. We also got to trip and reset their wet, dry, deluge, and preaction risers so we could better understand how each one operated. In addition, he had cutouts in valves so we could see the cross-sectional view and understand the hydraulics of each valve.

Underwriters Laboratories (UL)

On Wednesday, we toured UL in Northbrook, IL and got to see their testing facilities. We learned about the work that lab technicians do to test fire sprinklers, including heat, pressure, and vibration tests. We also were able to experience their field sprinkler process, where customers send in older fire sprinklers to determine if they are still operational. In addition, we toured their smaller test rooms, where they observe how sprinklers operate and where they also perform distribution tests. We also saw the testing facility where they set up residential fire tests, which was very similar to Viking’s facility, as well as the area where they conduct valve testing. After the tour, we flew back to Baltimore.

It was an extremely fun trip, and we are all incredibly grateful that we had the opportunity to tour these amazing facilities!

Code of the Week!

NFPA 13 (2025), Section 16.14.2.1 — Dry Pipe Systems

A trip test connection not less than 1 in. (25 mm) in diameter, terminating in a smooth bore corrosion-resistant orifice, to provide a flow equivalent to one sprinkler of a type installed on the system, shall be installed on each system, except as modified in 16.14.2.2 and 16.14.2.3.

This section is important because the trip test connection allows a dry pipe system to be tested to make sure it operates properly. This connected directly to our experience at Viking, where we got to trip and reset dry pipe risers and better understand how these systems work in real life.