The Marley Cooling Tower Company

Ronald D Forest

Kenneth P Mortensen

John W Rellihan

A fire resistant industrial water cooling tower (20) is disclosed having normally closed passive vent structure (28) which vents the interior of the tower (20) above the area which is undergoing combustion to enhance suppression of the fire. The vent area is dependent upon the location and extent of the fire. The vent structure (28) comprises means presenting a series of vent openings which are closed by a component (88) that responds to flames and/or hot products of combustion to move out of blocking relationship to the opening thus venting the interior of the tower. In preferred embodiments, the vent includes a panel member (82) having a series of openings (83) therein which are either covered or blocked by a synthetic resin member (88) formed of a material which will burn and has a relatively low melt temperature thereby causing the material to either burn or rapidly melt when subjected to flames and/or hot products of combustion resulting from a fire in a part of the tower. The fire resistance of an industrial water cooling tower may be further enhanced by the utilization of fill assembly racks (52) made up of individual fill packs (50) that upon burning to a predetermined extent may fall away from the remaining packs of the stack to prevent lateral spread of the fire to the remainder of the fill assembly.

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Olathe, KS, United States of America

Ronald D Forest