Product category:
Maintenance Services
News Release from: American Maintenance Systems | Subject: Flow Boss Cleaner
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 17 April 2008
Flow Boss Cleaner for plugged instrument
lines
The Flow Boss Cleaner was developed to prevent hazardous vapour and other accidents during cleaning and maintenance of instrument impulse lines or clogged valves on petrochemical plant
Despite all the prevention efforts in the petrochemical industry, serious safety incidents have remained relatively flat You can visit the front gates of most facilities, whether in the US or Europe, and their safety records are displayed boldly
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 18 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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But a deeper look at the years 2000 through 2005 shows that the rate of incidents move marginally from year to year.
In fact, Europe reported 27 major accidents in the year 2000 and 28 major incidents in the year 2005.
One area of particular concern is VCE, or vapour cloud explosions, and BLEVE, or boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion.
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These types of incidents have the potential to devastate a petrochemical facility and risk the lives of workers and people in the surrounding areas.
And one task is still rated as particularly hazardous - it is the cleaning of bleeder valves and instrument taps by workers.
In today's computer controlled process environment, the necessity to have properly functioning instruments is vital to operations.
Without these instruments, transmitters cannot relay vital operating parameters to the controllers.
There is a critical need to clean out clogged instrument taps, or impulse lines, during normal operations.
Often times, this risky task falls on the plant workers, who may not have had suitable training on a way to keep these instruments functioning.
Without an alternative, workers may use a home-made contraption or a simple piece of wire in an attempt to clean the instrument lines.
This can have devastating results.
When the worker has removed the blockage, process material, typically under high pressure and at high temperature, blows out through the instrument tap, exposing the worker to hazardous materials.
In many cases, this blow-out goes un-noticed by anyone except the worker.
However, if this vapour cloud finds a source of ignition, or is at sufficient temperature it can auto-ignite, and result in a fire.
Larger vapour clouds from these blow-outs have been known to cause vapour cloud explosions.
One such incident occurred at an oil refinery in Alma, Michigan killing the worker and injuring several others nearby.
The Flow Boss Cleaner was developed to prevent this occurrence.
These tools can function in extreme temperatures and high pressures up to 1000F (540C), in pH ranges from 1-14 and at pressures up to 1000PSI (70BAR).
Until the introduction of the Flow Boss Cleaner, there has not been a safe way to perform this necessary task.
Now these patent pending tools allow workers to clean these clogged valves while safely containing the process material during normal operations.
More facts, information and specifications can be obtained from American Maintenance Systems.
Please consult the website to see more about these tools.
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