ASHRAE Journal - September 2011 - AMCA24

By MICHAEL IVANOVICH, Director of Strategic Energy Initiatives, AMCA International, Arlington Hts., Ill.; and MICHAEL KING, FCSI, CCS, Vice President of Engineering Speciﬁcations, ARCOM, Alexandria, Va.

Fan and Damper
guide Specs Update
Architects, engineers, and contractors will be happy to learn that specifying air movement and control products is getting easier and more precise. ARCOM, publishers of MasterSpec® for the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and AMCA are collaborating on the refinement of MasterSpec sections covering fixed and movable louvers; axial and centrifugal fans, air doors, ventilators, and other products manufactured by AMCA members. The collaboration will update MasterSpec sections that contain citations to AMCA standards; add citations to relevant MasterSpec sections; and lead to new MasterSpec sections being created to cover AMCA products that are not currently within the MasterSpec library. Also, AMCA is making the whole standard available to MasterSpec subscribers through SpecAgent®, ARCOM’s new software, without cost. ARCOM is a private company with offices in Salt Lake City, Utah and Alexandria, Va. The research and writing of MasterSpec is performed in the Alexandria office. ARCOM uses a peer-review process to begin the update of MasterSpec specifications sections, of which there are more than 260 mechanical and electrical sections and over 600 architectural and engineering sections in all. Engineers from across the country from varying firm sizes, and who represent the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), come to Alexandria for two-day meetings to review sections scheduled for updating. This review, by practicing professional engineers who use MasterSpec on their projects and who are 24
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directly involved in writing project specifications for their firms, marks the beginning of the updating process. ARCOM also is collaborating with standards-producing organizations to make sure the content is current with industry standards, codes, and construction trends. MasterSpec is a master guide construction specification provided to architects, engineers, and design-build firms, with specification content written and organized according to the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) MasterFormat®, SectionFormat®, and PageFormat® standards for construction documents. MasterSpec is the most comprehensive commercial master guide specification system, with full-length sections, shortform sections, and outline sections for each of the more than 600 sections in architectural and engineering building specifications. There is also a library of small project specifications with sections covering the most often used products and activities for small projects. Each MasterSpec section includes extensive choices of features among product types. These are presented using alternative descriptions, optional text items, and insert instructions. Also included are “notes to the specifier” to assist in identifying where there are choices to be made and to provide some guidance on making those choices. There are no “fill-in-theblanks” where the engineer or architect must intuitively know what to insert. The “insert instructions” direct the engineer or architect to the type of content needed to specify features of the equipment, such as capacities, sizes, colors, and other
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ASHRAE Journal - September 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - September 2011