Air Compressor Warning

[Jeff Austin 1Participant @jeffaustin1]

Air receivers should be inspected periodically, obviously not enforced for diy types but a good idea nevertheless,

I have only ever seen the aftermath of one air receiver that exploded and it did explode, it was some years ago and being used in a medium sized car repair garage, the vessel in question was a vertical one stood at the side of a compressor that was feeding into it, this was in the bad old days of piston compressors that were all air cooled and consequently when worked hard they ran at high temperature and as a consequence there was lots of oil carry over as the piston clearances went miles out due to heat, the consequence of all this was that the oil that had accumulated in the vessel actually ignited and the pressure rise was so rapid that the pressure relief valve was rendered useless, the result was literally an explosion, the vessel ripped apart and punched a hole through the floor above,

This is why you should be careful using compressed air and compressors, keep them in good condition and inspect the vessel yourself periodically, the chance of catastrophic failure is very small but you do not want to be around if it happens, the picture of the small veseel that looks like it has peeled open should be enough to warn of the potential for injury to anyone stood near,

Vessels are inspected and can have a retest requested if the condition has worsened, testing is done with water for the simple reason that any failure when pressurised with liquid is far less dangerous due to physics, you cannot compress a liquid so there is very little stored energy, when you compress a gas you are storing energy so when it is released it is all that energy that will harm you,

as always look after your tools and they will look after you

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

On the topic of the incompressibility of water. There was a bang and a rattling noise in our development office one day when I was beavering away. one day. A steam turbine cylinder was undergoing an hydraulic test before assembly and a 1/2" BSP blanking plug blew out of its hole. Went straight through the wall into the office…

 

Water isn't all that compressible (unlike oil) but steel is sufficiently expandable to store up a bit of energy under the wrong circumstances.

Edited By Mark Rand on 31/01/2021 21:27:37

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