Certified products.
Approximately 250 million automatic sprinklers with international approvals (FM, UL, VDS or LPCB) are installed worldwide each year. Of these, only 2.5 million are installed in LATAM, which represents 1% of the total. This percentage is well below what it should be, given that the region has 8% of the world's population and generates 8% of the world's GDP.
There is a large gap in the use of these fire fighting technologies (sprinklers) between countries considered as developed (17% of the population and 49% of the world's GDP) and those countries in the process of development, where the implementation and use of these technologies (in developed countries) have shown significant advances in fire fighting.
The outlook is even worse for LATAM, as there are 100 million sprinklers that do not have the quality for proven certifications or do not comply with international standards, which calls into question their good performance during a fire.
In fact, if the price is too good to be true, it probably is, and it is not a product you want to get your hands on. These products will most likely fail during a fire, we must be responsible and not want to think that we have the ingenuity or lack of ethics to buy makeshift sprinklers. Unfortunately, in many of the countries in the region, many of these low-quality products have been installed.
Another of the main purposes of LATAM PCI is to raise awareness about the problems in the region, to avoid wasting resources and time on products that will never work properly. Even if they appear to be well designed, installed and maintained correctly, poor quality products will have to be replaced by ones that guarantee their correct operation during an emergency. All that investment will be lost if we do not use certified products, which will affect the integrity of our industry.
Likewise, the use of automatic fire sprinkler systems has been expanding thanks to the various actions that these associations carry out in their respective countries and actions such as education and training programs, lobbying with authorities to promote the adoption of international standards and UL listings, FM Approved.
It is therefore essential that authorities, consumers, system installers and users can identify between a certified product and one that is not. The latter put the lives of the occupants of a building and the property at risk, exposing their reputation and the continuity of their business.
For this reason, we recommend the use of certified and regulated products under local and international standards endorsed by internationally recognized laboratories.
It is essential that laboratories not only analyze products to verify initial compliance with minimum performance standards, but that follow-up services ensure continued production quality.
For more information on product certification services from internationally recognized laboratories, visit the following sites:
… united against fire