Heat and smoke vents are typically installed in buildings for the following reasons:

• Storage occupancies - The heat release rate from high piled storage commodities is expected to be very high. In such cases, it is considered by some fire protection professionals desirable to vent the heat from the building if the temperatures in the building reaches sufficiently high levels to endanger the structural stability of the roof system. Smoke venting is also considered to provide a minor benefit to increase the visibility in the interior space to facilitate manual fire fighting efforts for a limited period of time.

The use of vents in sprinklered buildings has been controversial over the last 25 years. Vent technology and sprinkler technology were developed independently of one another. Their interaction as beneficial technologies working together has not been successfully demonstrated. Many fire protection professionals are concerned that vents may cause sprinkler systems to fail to control a fire.

• Large internal volume spaces – Venting smoke from large spaces which regularly contain large numbers of people, such as malls and atria

Automatic heat and smoke vents are available commercially in two general categories:

• Mechanically opened vent, powered by springs, pneumatic actuator, or electric motor.

• Drop-out vent – constructed of plastic which shrinks in the presence of heat (i.e., drop-out panel).

AS-TECH offers you high quality smoke and heat vent systems and gives recommendation for them.