Safety Info Posts

New Edition of Pamphlet 6, Piping Systems for Dry Chlorine, now AVAILABLE (FREE Download)

Revision 16 of this pamphlet includes the addition of a section on fully-lined valves (4.1.9), a more robust section on liquid expansion chambers (5.5), recommendations on plastic pipe selections and discussion on gas permeability under vacuum (9), a caution on pneumatic testing (11.2.2), updated guidance on hydrostatic testing (appendix A, 2.3.1), and addition of a […]

PHA’s and “previous incidents”

One area that is often overlooked or not applied during process hazards analysis (PHA) is a review of previous incidents.  This is often not done as the process has no reported incidents in the past five years.  We can discuss/challenge that “phenomenon” in a later posting, but I wanted to offer this bit of advice…

Pressure Vessel Accident Rates

With the release of the CSB accident report involving the catastrophic failure of an ASME pressure vessel and me posting it this afternoon, I am already getting e-mails (5 and counting within the first two hours) claiming the incident is “1 in a million” and that I am scaring people for no sound reason.  Really?

CATASTROPHIC FAILURE of ASME Pressure Vessel (Video and CSB Investigation)

This accident occurred December 7, 2009, with a violent rupture of an ASME pressure vessel.  The video contains an animation which depicts the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) that accumulated over time in the walls of a pressure vessel where synthetic quartz crystals were manufactured under extremely high pressures and temperatures.  The incident had many failures

First (1st) Public Review of Standard BSR/IIAR 4-201x, Installation of Closed-Circuit Ammonia Mechanical Refrigeration Systems

The first (1st) public review of draft standard IIAR 4-201x, Installation of Closed-Circuit Ammonia Mechanical Refrigerating Systems is now open. Substantive changes resulting from this public review will also be provided for comment in a future public review if necessary.  IIAR 4 specifies criteria for the installation of closed-circuit ammonia refrigeration systems. It presupposes that

2013 Photo of the Week #45 (LOTO)

 Last week I wrote a posting about LOTO and got a lot of e-mails regarding the tone of my postings.  To make my point, this week’s “photo of the week” is taken from an on-line training program for LOTO.  Look very closely at this photo and post the OSHA violations you see.  There are TWO

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