Wet pipe fire protection system

A fire suppression system comprising:

• system piping;
• at least one sprinkler mounted to said system piping, said system piping for delivering fire suppressant to said sprinkler, said sprinkler having an outlet and a temperature sensitive trigger, said temperature sensitive trigger opening said outlet for dispersing fire suppressant when sensing temperatures associated with a fire condition;
• a flow detector coupled to said piping system, said flow detector generating a flow condition signal when said flow detector detects suppressant flowing through said system piping;
• a flow control valve in fluid communication with said system piping, said flow control valve having an inlet chamber, an outlet chamber, and a priming chamber, said inlet chamber and said outlet chamber being separated from said priming chamber by a clapper assembly, said flow control valve including a priming line in fluid communication with said inlet and said priming chamber, said priming line pressuring said priming chamber, and said clapper assembly opening and closing said flow control valve in response to pressure in said priming chamber, said priming line being adapted to pressurize said priming chamber whereby said flow control valve has a normally open condition to fill the system piping with fire suppressant;
• a suppressant supply line delivering suppressant to said inlet of said flow control valve;
• at least one fire detector adapted to detect temperatures associated with a fire, said fire detector having a no-fire condition state and a fire condition state;
• and
• a control system in communication with said fire detector, said flow detector, and said priming line, said control system being adapted to control the flow of suppressant in said priming line to cycle said flow control valve between said normally open condition and a closed condition in response to said fire detector being in said no-fire condition state and said flow detector generating a flow condition signal and adapted to control the flow of fire suppressant through said priming line to cycle said flow control valve between said closed condition and said normally open condition when said fire detector is in said fire condition state or when said fire detector is in said no-fire condition state and said flow detector generates a no-flow condition signal.

A method of controlling the flow of fire suppressant through a fire suppression system to system piping, said method comprising the steps of:

• providing a flow control valve;
• coupling the flow control valve to a fire suppressant supply and to system piping, the flow control valve having a normally open condition;
• filling the system piping with fire suppressant through the normally open valve;
• detecting a no-fire condition and a flow-condition in the system piping;
• detecting the flow of fire suppressant through the system piping;
• actuating the flow control valve to close when a no-fire condition is detected and flow is detected in the system piping;
• and
• actuating the flow control valve to re-open or remain open when a fire condition state is detected.