Safety Message: Without Safeguards, Pressure Vessels Can Be Deadly

 A fantastic Article found on: www.csb.gov/newsroom/detail.aspx?nid=293

November 09, 2009

Without appropriate safeguards, pressure vessels can pose lethal dangers.

Washington, DC, November 9, 2009 – CSB Chairman John Bresland released a new video safety message today asking jurisdictions across the country to adopt the ASME Pressure Vessel Code to reduce the number of accidents involving catastrophic pressure vessel failures in process industries.

The safety message can be viewed on CSB.gov and on the CSB’s safety message channel,www.youtube.com/safetymessages.

In the safety message, Chairman Bresland warned that without appropriate safeguards, pressure vessels can pose lethal dangers. Chairman Bresland said, “Pressure vessels store tremendous amounts of energy and you should never become complacent about the risks.”

Particular danger exists when vessels are improperly installed, welded, or modified, or when they lack effective pressure relief systems. Mr. Bresland refers to several incidents investigated by the CSB including an explosion at a Louisiana natural gas well that killed four workers when a tank rated only for atmospheric pressure was exposed to gas pressure up to 800 pounds per square inch.

In April 2003, an 8-foot tank used to heat sugar caramel exploded when the vent line became blocked, killing an overnight operator, releasing large amounts of ammonia, and forcing a community evacuation. The vessel had no pressure-relief system.

Additionally, in 2004 a pressure vessel weighing 50,000-pounds exploded at a chemical plant in Houston, Texas, throwing heavy fragments into the community, which damaged a church and businesses.  The CSB found that the company improperly modified and welded the vessel.

Chairman Bresland stated that these accidents can be avoided if states implement long-established codes for safe use. He said, “There are only eleven states that do not require companies to follow the Pressure Vessel Code of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). I ask all jurisdictions to adopt the Pressure Vessel Code and related boiler standards. Lives will be saved as a result.”

The ASME Code provides the fundamental safeguards for pressure vessels, including design, welding procedures and fabrication, testing, and pressure relief. In 2006, the CSB called upon the City of Houston to adopt the Code to protect residents and industrial facilities from these incidents. However, Houston has failed to implement this recommendation despite reoccurring pressure vessel failures such as a summer of 2008 heat exchanger explosion in a resin-production facility that killed a veteran supervisor.

The CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. The agency’s board members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. CSB investigations look into all aspects of chemical accidents, including physical causes such as equipment failure as well as inadequacies in regulations, industry standards, and safety management systems.

The Board does not issue citations or fines but does make safety recommendations to plants, industry organizations, labor groups, and regulatory agencies such as OSHA and EPA.

A powerful reminder about the purpose of the ASME code and the dangers of not using a qualified and certified ASME code shop for repairs and alterations.  The nominal costs of making proper repairs to ASME pressure vessels is insignificant to the potential loss of human life. Likewise, the risk of installing non-code vessels is equally dangerous and potentially deadly.

Depropanizer and Deethanizer Tower, Great Price Better Delivery

Since this summer Precision Pipe and Vessel, A Denver ASME welding and fabrication shop has built and delivered two 80 foot plus deethanizor and depropoanizer towers.  By all standards these are not the largest towers on the market, but are a large enough to serve a major sector in gas processing plants.  These towers were built in Denver and will be shipped all the way to Pennsylvania for their final installation.  This project was conducted with a Nationwide RFP process and it was discovered the Precision Pipe had a competitive price (even with expensive trucking costs) and even better delivery schedule.

As the gas boom seems to be gaining traction, it seems many ASME shops are becoming back logged with large vessels such as these.  Many gas processing companies turn to the same fabricators over and over again and are willing to wait months for delivery at the expense of production and revenue.  As project managers become familiar with companies they tend to turn to the same companies time and time again.  This is probably a safe bet with long established business relationships, but the petroleum is a high risk high reward kind of business.  From the early stages of drilling, installation, permitting, and well stimulation this is in all reality a high stakes business.

Any company that is seeking a competitive edge should be looking for energetic and motivated businesses qualified to provide the same products on a better delivery date (any ASME code vessel will require the same QA QC and inspection).  The cost of lost production is much more expensive than a few thousand dollars in added cost or even shipping, yet procurement specialist and project managers turn to the same companies over and over again without looking at the competitive advantage they may have by using a new vendor with better delivery times.  As dollars are wasted waiting for equipment it seems more logical to strike up new business relationships based on better delivery schedules. Give us a call and see if we can get you to revenue quicker than your go to guy, you might be surprised!

304 Stainless deethanizer tower

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 3,900 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Precision Helps Co2 Nexus Launch New Technology

Denver, CO – July 19, 2011 – We are thrilled to announce today the introduction of our groundbreaking liquid carbon dioxide based fabric and textile cleaning machine. CO2Nexus is a Denver, CO-based company dedicated to developing equipment and consumables that use liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) to clean fabrics and textiles. We are a spin-out of the premier worldwide CO2 R&D entity – FeyeCon Development & Implementation B.V. We are also pleased to announce our partnership with Denver-based Revolution Cleaners, who will field the first dry cleaning unit at their Denver plant.

Liquid CO2 – the same substance that puts the fizz in every carbonated beverage – has excellent solvent properties and is intrinsically sustainable, since it is in-exhaustible, cheap, non-toxic, non-hazardous, non-flammable, and cannot spill into the soil or groundwater. Chemical based solvents currently used in the dry cleaning industry are being phased out and/or have health and liability risks. Water based laundering methods are taxing already severely depleted water resources, especially in the Western U.S.

The CO2 used in the CO2Nexus systems is recycled from existing industrial processes and as such is completely carbon neutral.

CO2Nexus will also field a system later this year targeting the industrial laundry market, in partnership with one of the largest U.S. based service providers in that market. Industrial laundry uses water as the primary cleaning solvent.

Richard Kinsman, CEO of CO2Nexus comments: “Chemical and water based dry cleaning and laundering methods have real consumer marketing and environmental-health liabilities that will only get worse. At the same time, the performance, operating costs, sustainability and consumer marketing benefits of CO2 are attractive and will continue to get better, which is why we believe it to be the best long term option. Our association with FeyeCon on the technology side, and with the primary service providers at the industry level assures us that we have both the scientific and practical basis to implement the technology.”

CO2Nexus will offer commercial units starting in Q1 of 2012.

Denver-based Precision Pipe & Vessel, LLC will serve as our manufacturing partner. Mr. Kinsman: “PPV has tremendous know-how and a real track record in gas processing equipment and components. They bring tremendous value to our organization and we are proud to be partnered with them.”

Edward Pizzarello of Revolution Cleaners confirms their involvement: “We’re excited to be able to install the first unit in our facility. Revolution Cleaners has been on the leading edge of CO2 cleaning in Denver for over 6 years. CO2 has been our only cleaning solvent, and we’re thrilled with the opportunity to move to the next generation of CO2 cleaning technology.”

State and federal agencies have established grant based incentives to encourage the adoption of CO2 based systems, beginning in CA. Other states are anticipated to follow.

About CO2Nexus Inc.

CO2Nexus Inc. designs and sells equipment that uses recycled liquid carbon dioxide (CO2 ) to replace water and chemical based cleaning solvents in dry cleaning and industrial laundry.  Liquid CO2  - the same substance used to “fizz” beverages –  is an intrinsically excellent cleaning solvent and, unlike other solvents, is in-exhaustible, cheap, non-toxic, non-hazardous, non-flammable, and leaves zero secondary waste. www.co2nexus.com

About Revolution Cleaners

Revolution Cleaners cleans exclusively with recaptured, liquid carbon dioxide (CO2 ) & water (H2O); positioning themselves as the most experienced dry cleaner in Colorado using these methods. CO2  and H2O are naturally effective cleaning agents for a wide range of garments and household items. The absence of heat in Revolution’s  cleaning process ensures that stains come out more readily and garments have a longer life. With Revolution, your clothes are cleaner, softer and fresher than with traditional dry cleaning methods. www.revolutioncleaners.com

About Precision Pipe & Vessel

Precision Pipe & Vessel (PPV) is a Denver-based fabrication facility with extensive experience in gas processing, alternative energy and the cleantech industry. They offer top notch engineering, fabrication and product development services to clients across the US. With a track record of successfully serving customers for over 30 years PPV has proven themselves to be a reliable and effective fabrication facility. www.precision-pipe.com

Natural Gas Processing Equipment

For those of us who have been in the business of supplying the oil and gas industry with ASME pressure vessels, welding, and skid packages we all know the “feast or famine” cliche all too well.  It seems that the feast may be building as well head projects have now turned to midstream to begin production.  After 30 years of the ups and downs in the gas business I’m not surprised to be seeing another dramatic upswing in the demand for process equipment like columns, separators, slug catchers, pots and pans pressure vessels, and compression.  As oil has been settled around $100 a barrel, NGL’s (Natural Gas Liquids) are worth a premium!  What the general public doesn’t know is that the gas boom isn’t really about the methane gas (although changes in public and government sentiment around using coal to produce power is also driving the boom) but it has far more to do with the NGL’s that need to be separated from the natural gas streams.

In the 1980′s we built a good business by providing comparably smaller size Natural Gas plants to individual producers that were running between 50k scf/d and 25mm scf/d. However, the days of small natural gas producers seem to be facing an einvitiable end. Although, we still build an occasional NGL plant  (JT or Refrigeration) it seems that large large single components like re-boilers, separators, columns, towers, and random pressure vessels or heat exchangers are getting much larger in size to handle large scale centralized natural gas processing facilities.  The days of building an entire skid package so a small producer can sell into the pipeline has given way to being a vendor that supplies parts and pieces to a large scale facility.

Currently, we have have on order several towers that have various packing requirements that are all in excess of 4′ X 80′.  We are also building catalytic reactors for the removal of oxygen, slug catches, pulsation bottles, and other various components.  These vessels range in size a weight between a few hundred pounds all the way up 40,000 lbs.  However, the commonality is that it is all for gas production throughout the USA.  This years business activity in gas processing is a stark contrast to last year when we did less than 25% of our business with oil and gas projects.  I welcome the feast as we have always enjoyed working with clients in the Oil and Gas industry.  Like always, Precision Pipe and Vessel is working very hard to meet tight deadlines and get these components into the field in record time.

www.Precision-Pipe.com

MBWA

One of my favorite things about working here at Precision is that we practice  Manage By Wandering Around.  (MBWA as Introduced by Peters/ Waterman in the book, In Search of Excellence)  While the authors were doing research for the book they interviewed HP President John Young who explained what the term meant and its importance to HP especially during times of explosive growth.  Reflecting back on the concept of MBWA and first learning of its meaning Peter’s writes, “MBWA … Managing By Wandering Around … quickly became our favorite “excellence” idea! Technically, it meant staying in direct touch (damn the bureaucracy!) with the folks who do the work. Metaphorically, it stood for all/much of what was wrong with American management—McKinsey & Harvard Business School-style—as we confronted the Japanese challenge in areas such as product quality. That is, “big business” had become an abstraction. It was a “by the numbers” affair, where front-line “personnel” were pretty much interchangeable parts in a well-oiled “machine” and where “strategy” was considered far more important than primitive ideas such as quality and service and turned-on folks. Of course by then the bearings had lost most of their oil and seized up!”

Ok, I know what you are thinking and you are right, we’re not a giganto conglomerate that has thousands of people working for us at multiple locations!  Yes, this is true, but what is even truer is that on a daily basis small companies must fight against losing their nimbleness, effectiveness, and..well, their human touch.  We believe in measurement and standards, but not at the expense of losing touch and becoming irrelevant.  We believe in knowing our employees, not intrusively, but in such a way that they know they are a valuable member of our team.  We believe in getting out of our offices and wandering around.

Nobody in our company does this better than our President, who regularly practices MBWA and often times finds himself in the middle of lending a hand to one of our employees.  (And on occasion our customers)  There is no substitute for MBWA; it is the lighthouse that steers the small business away from the shoreline of irrelevancy that it is headed for.  Engage in MWBA today…seriously, get up and go wander!

What we lack in perfection we make up with integrity!

Everything seemed to be going so well, when all of the sudden we find ourselves thrown under the bus by another team member!  Working on a project with a team of people from different departments, companies, or disciplines it is inevitable someone is going to be thrown under the bus.  It is almost comical to me because I have found myself under the bus many times. I have been thrown under the bus by people I brought on to the job who are protecting their own interest (AKA covering their own butt).  I have been thrown under the bus because I am nice, because I was late or not at the meeting, because I was doing too good of a job, and  I have been thrown under the bus because I was the problem.  In any event it seems inevitable that doing projects with big budgets and tight deadlines people will be thrown under the bus for all sorts of good and not so good reasons.There are some people that are particularly good at throwing co-workers under the bus.  Usually these expert “bus chuckers” are gifted at gab but lack the skill sets that would make them proficient at the task at hand.  The boss likes them because they talk a big talk, are bold in their actions, and kiss up like it’s an olympic sport and they are the reigning world champion.

I like to instill in my employees a different way of conducting business and completing projects.  What you lack in perfection you must make up for in integrity.  This means that personal responsibility must come  first and foremost over the blame game.  The hope is that when an employee makes a mistake they don’t wait for everything to unravel and for panic to ensue.  This is a paradigm that allows for mistakes and mishaps but requires everyone to throw themselves under the bus when the time comes.  This mindset allows for the “human factor” to be real in our company without the need to malign others because of an inevitable error.

This approach has the benefit to us as a company as well as for our clients.  In the world of process equipment, pressure vessels and other custom fabricated products we are always striving to improve cost competitive, time tables, a quality of goods.  While we allow for “new development” we have to also allow for a mistake because sometimes things don’t go as planned.  The errors can make for cost over runs, late delivery, re-work, and all the other complications you hate to see in a project.  Again, some would see this as an opportunity to throw their own client under the bus and try to recover some of the lost profits.  However, I see this approach as a risk reward business strategy that has given Precision Pipe great advantages over our competition in fabrication and assembly techniques. We would never pass along a cost to a client based on our own errors.  In fact once Precision paid more than 100% the cost of a tank because of our own trial and error.  Precision fronted and benefited from 100% of the error and our client was never the wiser as we still delivered in their eyes on time and on budget.

Calling a foul or a penalty on yourself is a humbling experience.  You can face the wrath of your customers, co-workers, management, money managers (they seem to be the least risk diverse as a constant in the universe) or even yourself.  However, if you can be transparent the dividends pay in happy customers, good products, leaner fabrication, and better schedules, and good reputation is well worth being labeled as imperfect in execution, but superior by integrity.  

www.Precision-Pipe.com

ASME Stainless Steel Welding Procedure

An interesting project has come to our shop that is leading to a new welding procedure. The project is a simple stainless steel pressure vessel, 6” diameter pipe, 0.432” wall approximately 18” long. While this seems overly simple it has led me to investigate the welding options we have qualified for stainless in our shop. We have stainless hardwire, flux core, stick, and TIG procedures but which one to use? Flux core fills very fast, hardwire is clean and neat, TIG has an artistic look when done right but is slower then hardwire and flux core. Stick welding is smoky and unless the welder is REALLY good it just doesn’t look as nice as the others. I’m beginning to think multiple processes. If we hardwire the root then no backing gas is required (meaning we don’t have to purge the inside of the vessel to remove any oxygen exposure on the back side of the weld) then we can fill the majority of the weld joint with either spray arc hardwire or flux core and finish with TIG. We get a solid, quick welded joint that looks like art! But I don’t have a weld procedure that includes three different welding processes. Do I need to break out some stainless steel scrap and weld up a coupon using the three selected processes and have it tested? Conveniently, I do not. Because I have Procedure Qualification Reports (PQR’s) for all three processes I can write a new procedure using the existing PQR’s. I can take the information from each PQR and implement a new procedure that includes all three processes. Each process must be noted on the new weld procedure and the essential variables must also be noted. One other item to be sure to review, the thickness of the additive PQR’s must yield the thickness range required for the intended joint. Maintaining documentation of all our welding processes and procedures makes this an easy accomplishment, an accomplishment that allows us to utilize our knowledge and history to go forward. If you like the way a certain welding process looks but have been told it costs too much or takes too much time, give us a call. We’ll help you find a happy medium that yields beautiful welding and cost effectiveness.

TIG Cover Pass

Knowledge – Who Needs It?

In short, you do.  We all do.  Furthering ones education increases your knowledge base resulting in you becoming a more valuable commodity.  It can lead to more responsibility, which leads to promotions and thus more salary.   It can lead to higher self esteem as more people look to you for the answers they do not have.  Pursuing education shows your employers you have motivation and drive, both positive qualities in employees.  There is a lot of upside here, so you need knowledge!

Once you have made the commitment to gain knowledge, the next step is determining what kind of knowledge do you want?  Do you want to keep up on current trends on topics concerning your current job?  Do you want to establish yourself as a person “on the rise” in your company?  Do you want to leave your dead end job and find something that appeals to you on a more personal level?  Basically, what is it you want your job to be for you?  Once you have determined what you want, it’s time to find out what you need.  Is there a specific type of knowledge you need?  Is the knowledge you require only available in certain classes or specific seminars?  Do you need to pursue an advanced degree to get the knowledge you want?  There are many ways to get the knowledge you desire.

Two subjects that you need to think about when choosing an education is time and money.  How much time you have to pursue your education and how much you can spend will greatly determine which direction you take on choosing how you want to gain your knowledge.  Hopefully, you are lucky enough to work for a place that will cover your expenses for your search for knowledge, because then it’s all a matter of time.

How does all this affect our company?  Well, we here at Precision Pipe and Vessel, LLC are a diverse group of individuals and our diversity does not stop at our knowledge base and how we reached it.  We have personnel here who received their knowledge base through 4 year degrees, various seminars and classes, the occasional ASME conference, and of course, hard knocks.  Our welders and fabricators are always looking to improve their knowledge base through welding different types of metal using a variety of methods and we comply by teaching them the new methods.  Our office staff are also looking for ways to add to their knowledge through learning new engineering and project management practices.  In fact, one of them recently received their MBA from an accredited college.  So we have a lot of knowledge and are willing to use it to help you get your job done.

2010 Lessons Learned?

New Year, new beginnings- same results?  That is not so bad when the last year was successful – or is it?

Recently, I have noticed that I am currently NOT doing much in the way of self-improvement other than maintaining the successful practices I have adopted last year.  On the surface this seems benign – after all, if it’s working, why change?  I can’t help but think…..what if?  What if I can add or tweak some of those successful things 2-5% for the better?  Wouldn’t that be worth the time investment to enhance what I do well? Certainly.

In business, we often focus our attention on our defects over the past year and give our organization the same old pep talk involving words such as, “We cannot continue…and/or Knock it off.”  This exercise is well worth the time and effort.  Making efforts NOT to repeat mistakes is always a worthwhile endeavor especially when your competency and reputation is on the line.  What about the things you do well?  Does your organization look to improve upon the good things that you do, even if it is “just” a 2-5% improvement.  (Example:  If your organization is good at turning quotes around what if you improved it by a couple of hours?  Soon, those hours – turn into day(s).)

Sometimes the smallest of efforts to improve what you do well can pay the biggest dividends.