Re: Re: Case Explosion Narrowed Down to Human Error

Posted by Bob Kerr on August 06, 2001 at 20:04:26 from (152.163.195.203):

In Reply to: Re: Case Explosion Narrowed Down to Human Error posted by Bill Jones on August 02, 2001 at 20:55:17:

You make a good point Bill. Scale build up is very dangerous in high pressure boilers.I once saw a chart that listed the "R"(insulation) factor for certain thicknesses of scale. Pretty scary! Also I read that old fusible plugs can change, as far as the melting point goes, from age. It had to do with the crystal structure of the metal the plug is made from.The heat/cool cycles and time and possibly boiler water treatments and cleaning chemicals affect the plug and it is a good idea to change them once in a while.They are the last line of defence in a bad situation.They are also not fool proof. I read an article on the net some where about a Navy ship that blew up in San Diego harbor back in the twentys or thirties. The board of inquiry found that one of the valves on the sight glass was turned off giving a false reading of the water level.The glass showed the water was fine, but in reality it was dangerously low. When the Capt gave orders to hard fire the boiler it didn't take long to send it skyward and the plugs didn't melt in time. When the explosion that happened in that one boiler, it caused the rest of the boilers on the ship to blow as well.I wont go into the gory details about what happened to most of the crew. I would suggest to anyone who operates steam equipment to go and read all you can about boiler explosions, especially ones that happened on ships.The investigations are fairly thorough and will give you good ideas on what you can do to avoid it happening to you. The least thing it will do is keep every thing fresh in your mind. It is easy to get too confident and forgetful when there are tons of people around.Boiler explosions are getting rare these days because there are not as many boilers operating as in the past. It is a shame when one does blow, but if there was a bright side to it, it would be that it gets everyone who deals with boilers thinking straight again.

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