Remember last month’s case study, when we said, “Imagine if this fan base had a simple door hinge on it. We have seen it before!” Well, we didn’t quite find a “door hinge” fan base for you this month, but we got pretty close. We call this disaster The Micro-Hinge.
Last month, we discussed the improper use of our Quick-Fit Hinge. Luckily, nobody was hurt when this rooftop grease containment system fell on top of itself due to the sheer weight of the fan and not being properly fitted with a hinge that ranged across its base at 60 percent. This month, we found a rooftop grease containment system suffering from a similar and much more dangerous problem. Behold, The Micro-Hinge:
We don’t have a picture of the full base to compare the tiny size of this hinge to the base, but we are sure you can imagine a standard rooftop fan and base. Even at its smallest, this hinge is unacceptable for any kind of fan base. This Micro-Hinge is coming in at, maybe, four inches long. To give you an idea of how small that is, our smallest hinge is our Econo Hinge which is 10 inches long.
A four-inch hinge, following our 60 percent standard rule, would only work for a fan base that was 6.667 inches. Have you ever seen a fan base that small? No? Us either. Not only would it not work for any fan base, it is extremely dangerous for people working on the system or up on the roof. If you saw last month’s case study post, you saw the pictures where the fan’s weight forced it to bend so far back that it broke the base and came crashing down onto the roof. Nobody was hurt, but you can imagine if someone had been standing or working near something that weighed as much as a fan base does. Below is an image from last month to give you an idea of how it could break.
This Micro-Hinge broke its fan base in a similar way, except that the base broke on the way up, instead of on the way down. Below are some images showing how the entire corner of the Micro-Hinge’s base snapped.
As you can see in the images above, the Micro-Hinge caused the fan base to completely snap in the corner at its edges and bend in the center. It’s not a rule by the NFPA that the hinge must cover 60 percent of the fan base, that is just our own philosophy so that we can best protect the fan, its base, the roof, and, most importantly, people.
If you ever have questions about what kind of hinge will properly fit your fan base, we would love to help you figure it out! Our passion is protecting your investments, our environment, and the people we work with. You can always count on Omni Containment Systems for all of your roofing questions and needs.
Bonus: One more picture from The Micro-Hinge, showing a break near the spout.
