Explosion in a Electrical Products Plant
An employee was attempting to re-weld a lifting point on a brazing furnace cover. He was using a tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding machine to build up an attachment point on the cover when an explosion occurred. Its force lifted the furnace cover and propelled it against the employee. There were no witnesses to the incident. The furnace had apparently not been evacuated completely of gaseous hydrogen, and this may have triggered the explosion.
Event Date
October 28, 1996
Record Quality Indicator
Region / Country
Event Initiating System
Classification of the Physical Effects
Nature of the Consequences
Cause Comments
The furnace had apparently not been evacuated completely of gaseous hydrogen, and this may have triggered the explosion.
Facility Information
Application Type
Application
Specific Application Supply Chain Stage
Components Involved
brazing furnace, cover
Storage/Process Medium
Location Type
Location description
Unknown
Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned
Too less is known on the specific furnace application and the accidental sequence, to deduce a lesson. If the assumed cause was correct, a necessary step before starting any type of maintenance or repairing work is to purge the furnace with nitrogen and to verify the concentration with a detector.
Event Nature
Emergency Action
Unknown
Release Type
Ignition Source
Detonation
No
Deflagration
No
High Pressure Explosion
No
High Voltage Explosion
No
Source Category
References
References
U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration, Inspection: 125571786,
https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=125571…, (accessed November 2020)