PRESSURE is DANGEROUS

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Many MVs, in fact almost ALL of them, have pressure containment components that can become deadly if not respected.

Everything from compressed air systems, tires, and associated equipment feature designed safety features and devices that should be inspected regularly.

Although this picture shows a HOME CANNING PRESSURE COOKER, it shows well the explosive force effects of a faulty pressure release/weights mechanism.

BE SAFE ! ! !

~

 

[swbradley1]

My wife won''t let me bring a pressure cooker into the house OR have natural gas/propane.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Lid securely stored in ceiling.

 

[dilligaf13]

I bet the people living upstairs would strongly dislike that "lid storage method". I'd like to have eavesdropped on that phone call to the insurance company....

 

[papabear]

Air pressure is a strange thing indeed...it's almost magic!

I still have trouble understanding how you can put 150lbs of air pressure in a portable air tank but it still weighs the same as an empty one??

 

[Aussie Bloke]

G'day everyone,....


I have used pressure cookers for years and they are safe if you know how to operate them correctly,...
But yeah, ALL relief valves for your air tanks need to be serviced regular.

When I lived in a ground floor flat/apartment I installed a skylight,...
The people who lived above complained a lot,..
I don't know why as it wasn't theirs,....




Aussie.

 

[VPed]

Air pressure is a strange thing indeed...it's almost magic!

I still have trouble understanding how you can put 150lbs of air pressure in a portable air tank but it still weighs the same as an empty one??

Technically, not true. First off, it is 150 pounds per square inch (psi) not pounds (lbs.), different units. Second, while it does weigh almost the same given that the tank weight is much greater than the captive air weight, there is a difference. Air does have weight and more air weight more than less air. So an air tank with zero pressure weighs less than one with 150 psi.

 

[M813rc]

It was a joke....

Cheers

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

I was hoping this post would prompt some relevant MV Safety discussions and maybe even some True Horror Story submissions (with Pics??).

There are some experiences that others can learn from. Some are even survived for first-person accounts.

 

[CrwM35A2]

I have had a few close calls with pressure at work. I am a wellhead technician for GE Oil & Gas and work with pressure on a daily basis. For example when I install a new wellhead we have to pressure test the seal to be certain everything mated up correctly. Most of our seals are metal to metal. I regularly deal with 5,000 and 10,000 PSI tests and you would be surprised how many people will just stand right next to my wellhead or hose to watch. I always make everyone leave the area while I'm testing as I couldn't live with myself knowing that I could have prevented someone from being injured or even killed but decided this time it was ok. Last year we had an employee at another location doing some testing and he put hisself in the line of fire. Before he knew what happened someone actuated the wrong valve and the pressure "I think it was around 10,000 PSI" found a open needle valve that happened to be directly in line with his leg. He was injected with the test media they were using "I think it was hydraulic fluid". He was sent straight to the hospital where he almost lost his life. The doctors were able to save his leg but he has been through countless surgeries. As far as I know the guy still doesn't have complete use of that leg. Also had another guy that was injected in his hand by nitrogen. This was over four years ago and he still only has 20% use of his right hand and due to the extra strain on his left arm he tore his rotator cuff. Pressure is not something to be taken lightly. It doesn't take much to hurt you either so for the people who will say this guy is dealing with extreme pressures I will never deal with things like that my air compressor only puts out 110PSI. I was doing some upgrade work last year and was replacing some high pressure grease fittings. One of the fittings I put my bleeder tool on did not let off any pressure. So I began removing it to perform my testing. As a safety precaution I never stand in front of any fitting nor do I put any extremity in front of them. I got down to around two threads left and the fitting blew off like a bullet and hit a control panel well over 100 feet away and put a nice dent in it. This panel was Stainless Steel. The void area bled down and I determined that it was leaking past the hanger and communicating with the surface casing. I put my gauge on it and let it sit overnight to see what the pressure build up was. It only built up to 10 PSI. Please everyone take the time to check any component on your pressure systems, if they are broken fix them. Never take pressure for granted it's like a rattle snake sometimes it may warn you with a noise but other time it will strike and can and will injure or kill you.
These pictures are of a blowout that I was sent to try to set plugs to allow them to stop it. It was natural gas approx 11,000 PSI the tubing parted in the well and the pressure came up the production casing where it met a valve. This valve had been documented needing new bolting but was never done. When the pressure hit it the bolts snapped and the valve flew off. Hopefully everyone will take the advise given here and prevent anything from happening!!

 

[Warthog]

Just watch John Wayne in He!! Fighters.​ It will scare you.

I work the oil patch back in the early eighties as a roustabout. While I didn't work on the rigs, I saw plenty of aftermath from blowouts

 

[Flyingvan911]

It was a frame up. The wife wanted a new stove. Appliance lives matter!

 

[John S-B]

My wife won''t let me bring a pressure cooker into the house OR have natural gas/propane.

Electric can be dangerous too. What is she, Amish??

 

[Ford Mechanic]

Prank gone wrong...

I had a service writer that was "large", everyone joked around and pulled pranks from time to time in the shop. One day I took a 2 liter bottle and installed a air tool connection in the top. Ready with a loose air hose connected to it I waited for him to go get comfortable on the toilet in the shops 2 stall bathroom. The room door stays open cause the fans broke. The whole room might be 12 ft x 12 ft.

So I go running to the rest room and give the other end of the hose to another tech. I held the bottle by the house into the adjacent stall and signaled for the other tech to plug the hose in.

We'll I had forgotten to remove the film on the out side of the bottle. So it doesn't bust when it fills to 150 psi. So I poked it with my knife. ....

It was as loud as shooting a AR inside that small room. It went off with so much force it knocked all the toilet paper holders off the walls and off the back of the toilets. The stall walls were barely hanging on to start with, well it finished off the side he was in. It rattled the windows throughout service, parts, and sales. Folks came running from every where to see what went wrong. Needless to say there was a mess in his stall.

My ears rang so loud for 12 hrs I could hardly hear, every one had to almost shout so I could understand them. My ears hurt also, it took over 3 days for the ringing to subside.

I won't try that prank in a enclosed space ever again.

It was still funny as crap though!

 

[BnaditCorps]

Air pressure is a strange thing indeed...it's almost magic!

I still have trouble understanding how you can put 150lbs of air pressure in a portable air tank but it still weighs the same as an empty one??

You don't want to go there....

 

[m16ty]

I once saw a tire blow up while a guy was airing it up. It blew him back against the wall and I was standing on the other end of the shop (about 30' away). I was standing next to a window and the sudden pressure increase in the shop blew out the window. Luckily, all the guy airing the tire up suffered was broken glasses and two black eyes.

I've also seen the aftermath of a couple of industrial boilers blowing up, very nasty. The thing about boilers is if the blast or shrapnel don't get you, the scalding hot super heated steam will. It will rip apart 1/2" steel and concrete walls like they were paper.

Lots of energy stored in a running boiler and are surprisingly easy to blow up if you don't know what you are doing. Luckily, modern boilers have safety systems in place that are supposed to keep the operator from blowing it up but sometimes they fail or more often the operator will bypass a faulty safety device to keep the boiler running.

 

[TB58]

Split rims are a scary thing. The UH-60 uses a rim that has 7(older) or 14(new) 3/8ths(i think, its been a while) bolts plus the axle to hold it together. The tire is aired up to 140psi. You are supposed to deflate it prior to removing it from the axle and not air it up until it is torqued back on the axle. It happens every once in a while that some one tries to save time by not deflating it. It is generally not survivable.

Ford Mechanic - sounds like when we used to play with the MRE heaters in a soda bottle when we got bored in the field. You are right, they do sound pretty close to a 556 going off.

 

[saddamsnightmare]

October 10th, 2015.


I know this is going to cause a great deal of pain on here, but DO YOU KNOW when your truck's service and emergency air brake reservoirs were last hydro-stated? At 100 to 120 PSI, each one of these reservoirs are a bomb waiting to blow out the back of your cab, and spread shrapnel everywhere. Considering how infrequently the service air tanks get drained, you could have rust eating the bottom out, when it gets thin enough....BOOM!

On the railroad we have to hydrostat the locomotive reservoirs frequently, yet I have never seen this done on either military or civilian truck brake reservoirs. Now is the time to do it, you can always get a new reservoir if the old ones fail!

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Boiler explosions?!?!?

Google (Images): "Locomotive Boiler Explosions" and see what you would dread seeing in real life.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en....0....0...1ac.1.64.img..3.16.2184.hCK8fcECIlU

....now where is that SS Railroad Forum when you need it???

Carry on.

 

[Ferroequinologist]

We had a 3000psi line blow on the ship one time. Isolation valve failed to work. The old stories of finding a steam leak with a broom handle and it cutting it off? I have seen 3000psi air cut a 1in mop handle like a knife through soft butter with my own eyes. Very unnerving. It was luckly in a spot where we didn't go often, but I shudder to think about what would have happened if someone had been standing there or walked through it before we found it.

I modified an old water heater tank that had a 200psi test plate on it into an air reservoir in my garage. Put a ball valve for a water drain in the lowest part. After pressurizing the system forntesting, I found a few leaks. Opened th drain valve to release the pressure. I opened it with my hand in such a way that my right palm was in the jet... all the silica and rust chucks sandblasted my palm. It hurt. A lot. I was picking bits out for weeks. And I knew better, just situational awareness was lacking.