On Thu, 13 Oct 2011, Wayne wrote:
> And of course everyone is gonna jump in with "do not use PVC, it can explode
> and shatter". But you know what -- I've seen it used in multiple industrial
> air systems, including a local NASCAR shop (Andy Petree - I now own his
> workbench and sandblaster) and never heard of failures.
>
> I suspect it's kinda like "do not power up your cell phone on the plane, or
> it will immediately nose dive into the ground"
There's this thing called Google...
"We're seeing more incidents of explosive failure, and we're citing more
employers for using PVC air system piping," said Paul Merrill, senior
safety inspector in L&I's Spokane office.
"It's probably just a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured
in one of these explosions unless everyone pays more attention to the
manufacturer's warnings," Merrill said.
Last year, a section of PVC pipe being used for compressed air
exploded 27 feet above a warehouse floor. A fragment of the pipe flew 60
feet and embedded itself in a roll of paper. Fortunately, nobody was in
the area at the time.
A PVC pipe explosion in a new plant in Selah broke an employee's nose and
cut his face.
PVC piping buried 3 feet underground at a Yakima manufacturing plant
exploded, opening up a crater approximately 4 feet deep by 3 feet across.
- http://www.osha.gov/dts/hib/hib_data/hib19880520.html
I'm willing to bet any shop that is owned by anyone with money and/or
lawyers, lacks PVC pipe for compressed air delivery. ABS pipe, maybe...
but not PVC.
--
David Hillman
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