Sight glass failure incident

Read about a sight glass failure incident due to wrong pressure rating in this link.


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Are you giving importance to maintaining steel structures?

Corrosion is a cancer that spread very fast. There have been many cases of structures collapsing due to the weakened support structure. An article by the department of minerals and energy, Western Australia succinctly explains why you must maintain your plant structures. Read it in this link.

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Incident due to scaffolding

An incident where a scaffolding pipe slipped and the scaffolder was saved by his safety harness highlights the importance of check couplings for suspended scaffolds.
The key lessons learnt from the incident as mentioned in scaffmag.com are

• "It is considered good practice to install check couplers above the suspension scaffolding coupler as described in AS/NZS 4576 Guidelines for scaffolding.
• The scaffold should be visually inspected by the work party prior to using the scaffold.
• Scaffolds should be inspected regularly by a competent person.
• Only equipment within its certification period should be used.
• Safety equipment should be suitably rated for the personnel using it.
• Fall arrest equipment should be anchored at a suitably rated anchor point.
• The rescue plan should reflect the hazards the job presents rather than using a generic rescue plan for all scaffold jobs".

 Read about the incident in this link. 

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Tragic incident in confined space - lessons to be learnt

I read about a very tragic incident involving an ISO container containing liquified air conditioning propellant kept inside a ships hold. The safety valve on the ISO container was passing and the released gas displaced the oxygen inside the hold. Three men died in this incident, including the brother in law of the first victim. The brother in law entered the hold through another way though he had been told not to enter the hold after the first victim collapsed. There are a number of lessons to be learnt from this incident in our industry and please share the incident with all your operations and maintenance staff.

The incident is available in this link.


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Safety system incident

A fire extinguishing system on a ship was inadvertently disabled because though the valve handle position indicated that the valve was open, the actual valve was closed. Read the incident in this link.


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CSB report on furnace explosion

The CSB has issued a report on the carbide furnace explosion. The CSB states that:

"The investigation report proposed two scenarios for the development of cooling water leaks that likely resulted in the overpressure and explosion. In one scenario, fouling – or the accumulation of solids inside the hollow chamber where water flows – resulted in localized overheating, eventually causing sections of the cover to sag and crack. 

           

 Another possible cause of the leaks could have been the sudden eruption of hot liquid from the furnace, which operators called a “boil-up.” Hot liquids contact the underside of the furnace cover, eroding its ceramic lining, and eventually melting holes through which water leaks. Post-incident examination revealed recurring water leaks in multiple zones of the furnace cover. Rather than replacing the furnace cover, the company directed workers to attempt repairs. The investigation found that the company would inject a mixture of oats and commercially available “boiler solder” into the cooling water, in an effort to plug the leaks and keep the aging cover in operation.

 

 Water leaks into the furnace interfere with the steady introduction of lime and coke raw materials, through an effect known as “bridging” or “arching,” the report noted. In a carbide-producing electric arc furnace, this can result in an undesirable and hazardous side reaction between calcium carbide and lime, which produces gas much more rapidly that the normal reaction to produce calcium carbide itself. Industry literature described the phenomenon as early as 1965, and an independent CSB analysis confirmed that operating conditions at Carbide on the day of the incident could have resulted in this effect, causing hot materials to be expelled from the furnace.

             

 CSB lead investigator Johnnie Banks said, “One of our key findings was that Carbide Industries issued 26 work orders to repair water leaks on the furnace cover in the five months prior to the March 2011 incident. It was distressing to find that the company nonetheless continued operating the furnace despite the hazard from ongoing water leaks. We also found that the company could have prevented this incident had it voluntarily applied elements of a process safety management program, such as hazard analysis, incident investigation, and mechanical integrity.”

Read the report in this link. 


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Time pressures compromising maintenance safety | Business news | Process Engineering

Time pressures compromising maintenance safety | Business news | Process Engineering

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Take precautions while testing safety valves

An article mentions the hazards while testing boiler safety valves. In a real life incident, two people were seriously hurt when a failure occurred after the test. Good suggestions are given in the article which you can read in this link.


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Thermal runaway reaction - on planes?

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been grounded due to a battery that caught fire earlier this month. Investigators are now indicating that possible reasons could be short-circuiting and a thermal runaway reaction, though they are not sure which came first.In our industry, there are many reasons for thermal runaway reactions in batch processes but the most common one I see is lack of understanding of reaction hazards during scale up. Spending money on identifying reaction scale up hazards is often not done due to the cost involved and later when an incident does occur, it is too late.
Read a news article on the investigation of the dreamliner battery fire in this link.

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Cell phone triggered IOC fire?

A news item in Hindustan Times mentions that an interim investigation suspects that contractors carried their cell phones to the top of the petrol tank which caught fire. It quotes the IOC's interim report as “It appears that the contractors’ workmen had climbed the tank and may have inadvertently provided the source of ignition.”
Read the article in this link.

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