Causes of oxygen tank explosion
The explosion of an oxygen cylinder, as well as the explosion of any other gas cylinder, is a huge tragedy, almost always accompanied by injuries or even the death of people. The consequences of an explosion of an oxygen cylinder have a specific character, since they are associated not only with detonation, an explosive wave, the scattering of fragments and parts of the cylinder, but also with the processes that occur in the event of ignition of various materials in the oxygen environment. Although oxygen is not a combustible gas, it can support gorenje completely non-combustible substances as a result of the explosion of an oxygen cylinder.
The causes of an oxygen tank explosion are standard. These are violations of safety rules, primarily related to the failure to ensure the working and storage conditions of cylinders, which must be protected from environmental influences, fire and, most importantly, various oils and organic substances that can self-ignite in an oxygen environment.
However, recently, competition in the market of oxygen suppliers has led to the emergence of completely unprecedented phenomena, such as the use of cylinders from other gases as oxygen cylinders that have not undergone repair and technical inspection in organizations that have the appropriate equipment and permits. Even scarier is the use of cylinders that are not designed for a working pressure of 150atm and a trial of 225atm. There are people who clean passport segments and stuff data that does not correspond to the characteristics of the balloon. This leads to explosions of oxygen cylinders.
Today, educational organizations confront their students with the fact that the service life of oxygen cylinders is 20 years, without delving into the fact that these data on the cylinder can be falsified and the manufacturing technologies of cylinders differ in different years at different enterprises. At the same time, no one teaches future welders or foremen to look more closely at the state of the passport segment. The result is an explosion of oxygen cylinders.
"The service life of the cylinders is determined by the manufacturer. In the absence of such information, the service life of the cylinder is set to 20 years. Industrial safety expertise in order to extend the service life of cylinders of mass use, the volume of which is less than 50 liters, is not produced, their operation outside the designated service life is not allowed, with the exception of special-purpose cylinders, the design of which is determined by an individual project and does not meet the standard designs of cylinders and expertise (technical diagnostics) which are carried out after the expiration of their service life, as well as in cases established by the manual (instruction) for the operation of the equipment in which they are used. "
Carrying out an examination of the industrial safety of pressure cylinders beyond their service life is not allowed!
Department of Emergency Situations of Karatal district