The OSH Labs burn room was designed for discharging sprinkler heads. The floor of the room has thick steel grating over a tank capable of holding approximately 6000 gallons of water (6383 if filled to just under the grating). The tank was designed to connect to a well that will eventually contain a vertical turbine pump used to simulate pond and lake water sources for fire protection systems. Today, the connection hole between the tank and the well was drilled with an 8" core bit. It was really cool.

The diagram below is a top view of the tank with the core to the well. Originally we requested a 6" hole.

Below is a side view of the tank and well. The core hole comes out just above the base of the tank into about the middle of the well. The vertical turbine pump is intended to sit near the bottom of the well.

This photo (below) is of the equipment used to drill the hole. The black cylinder is actually a bit. In woodworking, I'm familiar with these as "hole saws." In masonry work, they're core bits or core saws. This one is 8" in diameter. The red can contains water for lubricating the outside of the core bit and helping to remove (and minimize) the concrete dust. 

Here is the operation underway. He's about half-way through.

Hole is cored to the well. The cored-out concrete is still in the bit.

Here's how it looked when it came out of the bit. Its just a tad under 8" in diameter.

Its going to make a really cool door stop for the OSH Labs!

Looking through into the well. The dark stuff is water. The vertical turbine pump will sit in this well a couple of feet lower down than the bottom of the core hole.

I shoved the camera through the hole and took this picture of the grating at the top of the well. Thought it would be a neat shot, and it is, but its also a bit claustrophobic, eh? ;-)

And another fun day was had by all! Woohoo! :-)

"Before and after" photos in the OU OSH Labs. The curvature in most of the pictures is from a fish-eye lens used to try to capture the whole space in a single image.


Here's one from October 25, 2011 of the burn/sprinkler room:

 And this one from today (August 29, 2012):

Before looking into the robotics lab (10/25/2011):

 And today:

Before shot of industrial hygiene lab:

 After shot taken today:

Before shot from IH lab looking through robotics toward fire:

After shot:

Couple of classroom photos in our new building. Construction should be done this week.

Photo above is a classroom with comfy chairs and a cool A/V system. This room is like a movie theatre.

This is a partial shot of the 200-person classroom. There are two digital projectors and a floor-to-ceiling dry-erase/project screen.

The OSH Program is the grateful recipient of a donation of steel from Mr. Rick Jackson and Jackson Associates to build a fall-protection training and research tower and a mezzanine for conducting industrial ventilation training. Both structures will be erected in the OSH Labs in the new Human Health Building. Below are some photos from last Friday's steel movement to Performance Fabricators, who will do the final mods to the steel.

In the photo above, steel columns are chained to the trailer and delivered to Performance Fabricators. Mr. Jackson on the right, me on the left.

Another shot that emphasizes the size and mass of the base plates. Eric is beside Mr. Jackson in this photo.

Updates on the OSH Labs

Christman Company has done an excellent job with Oakland's new Human Health Building. They've also done an excellent job with the OSH Labs, too. Here are several very recent photos.

Pilkington NA/NSG in Toledo, OH, donated multi-layer intumescent glass (made in the NSG manufacturing facility in Germany) for the sprinkler/burn room in the fire protection portion of the glass. This photo shows Christman subcontractors and the representatives from Pilkington moving the glass into place.

Bret Penrod (blue helmet), General Manager, and Doug Porter (white shirt, behind), Production Manager, made this donation possible, including delivering, supervising and helping with the installation. Oakland University is grateful for this amazing donation of the most-advanced fire protection glass in the world.

 East side of sprinkler room (Pilkington Pyrostop is installed) with Marioff mist system rack and discharge unit in place. The Marioff mist system was donated by Healey Fire Protection, Orion, MI.

 Closer view of Marioff rack.

Myself and Brian Belevender, Healey Fire Protection, in the lab after moving the Marioff system into place.