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August 28, 2021

Steam cap failure incident

 At 8:12 a.m. on November 13, 2020, Employee #1 and a coworker, employed by an HV AC company, were repairing a steam piping system leak in the mechanical room of a medical care campus building. The employees did not utilize a lockout and/or tagout device. Following the repair, as the steam line was being re-energized, a threaded drip cap at the bottom of the vertical steam pipe riser apparently failed. The room immediately filled with pressurized steam. The interior door was in the closed position, and the employees were unable to exit the room. Employee #1 was killed. 

Source:Osha.gov

August 16, 2021

 The employees were charging a furnace for an alloy melt. Employee #1 had just placed the final two pigs on the lip of the furnace door and had backed his lift truck at an angle to a distance of 15 feet from the furnace. Employee #3 had previously pushed seven pigs into the furnace. As he pushed the final two pigs into the furnace, there were two separate explosions inside the furnace. The first explosion caused a wave of molten metal to flow over the open furnace sill outward to a distance of 40 feet. The second explosion caused a fan shaped flame that extended out 80 feet from the furnace. The flame touched the left front of Employee #1's lift truck and completely engulfed Employee #3's lift truck (located 30 feet directly in front of the furnace). Employee #2 was standing behind Employee #1's lift truck. All three employees were burned. Employee #3 died of his injuries. Water pockets inside the pigs apparently caused the explosions.

 Source: osha.gov

August 12, 2021

 Top Ten Boiler and Combustion Safety Issues to Avoid

 John R. Puskar, P.E.
Principal and Owner of CEC Combustion Services Group

Category: Operations

Summary: This article was originally published in the Summer 2010 National Board BULLETIN.

 https://www.nationalboard.org/Index.aspx?pageID=164&ID=439

August 8, 2021

 A game-changing approach to furnace safeguarding

This work is a follow-up article to “Automate furnace controls to improve safety and energy efficiency,” which was published in the June 2014 edition of Hydrocarbon Processing.

Mickity, D., Phillips 66
 
 

August 4, 2021

Role of fired heater safety systems

Role of fired heater safety systems

A fully automated burner management system operating as a SIS for burner control can meet minimum safety targets, improve system availability and lower costs

NIKKI BISHOP and DAVID SHEPPARD
Emerson Process Management

Role of fired heater safety systems