As some of you may know, System Studies Incorporated has been involved in the engineering of cable pressurization systems for a number of years. In fact, our engineers and drafters have designed systems for over 2300 offices in the United States. From calculating Optimum Air Usage (OAU) figures to providing our most comprehensive Level 2 Engineering, our Technical Services Department personnel are experts in all facets of cable pressurization system engineering.

What's the association between our Technical Services Department and Flow Finders? Our engineers have developed two symbols for Flow Finders which appear on the engineering documentation that we provide to our customers. One of these symbols, a solid triangle, is used to indicate the locations of installed Flow Finders on stickmaps. When completing stickmaps for an office which contains Flow Finders, our Technical Service Department regularly uses this symbol. They recommend that once you have installed Flow Finders in an office, your stickmaps should also be updated to include the symbol.

The image below illustrates the use of the new symbol in a typical PressureMAP stickmap. It is located in the Title Block along with other stickmap symbols. On the map itself, the symbol points to the actual manhole (or manhole name/number) where Flow Finders are installed.

When contracted for Level 2 Engineering, our Technical Services Department provides high quality Construction Workprints (in addition numerous other important engineering documents). A second Flow Finder symbol has been designed for this type of documentation. If Flow Finders are going to be installed in an office that we're engineering, this symbol will be included on all appropriate Construction Workprints. We recommend that you include the symbol on your workprints if you're planning to install or have Flow Finders installed in your area.

As you can see in the workprint example below, Flow Finders are indicated by using the letters "FF" enclosed within a circle. In addition, the letters "A" and "B" are positioned next to the respective Flow Finder symbols. These letters reference the placement notes (lower left corner of workprint) that identify the range of the Flow Finder to install.


When any type of hardware revision is made in a cable pressurization system, the appropriate engineering documentation should be updated to indicate the changes. If you have installed Flow Finders in your office or your future plans include them, please use the symbols we introduced in this Flow Finder Tip of the Week. If you have any questions regarding the use of these symbols, or if you're interested in finding out more about our engineering services, please give us a call at (800) 247-8255.