Severity
Incident
Was Hydrogen Released?
No
Was There Ignition?
No
Incident Date
Jun 10, 2007
Setting
Equipment
- Motive Power Systems
- Compressor
Damage and Injuries
Probable Cause
Contributing Factors
Characteristics
When Incident Was Discovered
Lessons Learned
Failure of a diaphragm is not infrequent, but the seizure of the main nut threads is very rare. The manufacturer claimed this had never occurred before with this type of unit. The broken plunger is likely the result of poor instructions/communications between the vendor and the user. The detail and quality of drawings provided by the vendor were poor given the level of investigation and repair needed for this occurrence. It is possible that the proprietary nature of some equipment information may have been a factor.