Ever start a panic?

mawk

So I had to let another company know about a possible serious problem today. 2 pressure vessels failed quite catastrophically over the last few months on a product we buy in.

The first I put down to bad luck or handling but with the second I had to pick up the phone and tell them.

The guy on the phone gave the appropriate "oh shiiii... please hold" response before the director of the company appeared.

have you ever been the one to discover a defect, bad design, contamination etc that led to a serious action?
Recalls, product cancellations or the like?
Either in your company or for someone else's

godtabh

I did have to tell a contractor that because he jumped the gun the road he set out and dug out was 10m out of place and he dug 1m below what he should have dug out. The cost was up to €50k! There was a panic on site that day

Luckily I hadn't issued drawings or instructions to preceded. He worked off draft drawings that weren't even issued to him!

brandon_flowers

Perfect timing for a thread. I told BP today that an intervention on an FPSO in Norway would require 2 days instead of the 1 they had estimated. It means they will lose about US$20m instead of $10m worth of oil production as it requires a full production shutdown. Funny thing is it is just to do a few Megger tests on instrument loops which are faulty but they are safety critical loops so down goes the whole vessel.

Wouldn't feel one bit guilty though, they will produce $10m almost everyday for 15-20 years on that vessel. Some of the BP beancounters weren't too happy though.

Frogeye

mawk wrote: »

So I had to let another company know about a possible serious problem today. 2 pressure vessels failed quite catastrophically over the last few months on a product we buy in.

The first I put down to bad luck or handling but with the second I had to pick up the phone and tell them.

The guy on the phone gave the appropriate "oh shiiii... please hold" response before the director of the company appeared.

have you ever been the one to discover a defect, bad design, contamination etc that led to a serious action?
Recalls, product cancellations or the like?
Either in your company or for someone else's

You had a pressure vessel fail catastrophically and you waited until it happened a second time before telling the supplier? I would have thought the health and safety brigade would have been all over it!!!!! Something seriously wrong with their quality control or their design ....thats shocking to be honest.....

okane1

mawk wrote: »

So I had to let another company know about a possible serious problem today. 2 pressure vessels failed quite catastrophically over the last few months on a product we buy in.

The first I put down to bad luck or handling but with the second I had to pick up the phone and tell them.

The guy on the phone gave the appropriate "oh shiiii... please hold" response before the director of the company appeared.

have you ever been the one to discover a defect, bad design, contamination etc that led to a serious action?
Recalls, product cancellations or the like?
Either in your company or for someone else's

I have been designing and overseeing pressure vessels for almost 6yrs and I have never heard of a pressure vessel failing. This is a very serious issue. Either the design, materials, fabrication or NDE is not up to the required international design codes.

mawk

Frogeye wrote: »

You had a pressure vessel fail catastrophically and you waited until it happened a second time before telling the supplier? I would have thought the health and safety brigade would have been all over it!!!!! Something seriously wrong with their quality control or their design ....thats shocking to be honest.....

First one was before my time, but I got on to them straight away when I saw this one.
They have told me it's the first time it's ever happened but it seethe like they are taking it seriously. The remains are going off for examination.
I'm just glad the bottle was in a steel cabinet and not next to anyone

Frogeye

Here are some examples of what happens when pressure equipment goes wrong..........



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl2YuLdHZzg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flixborough_disaster