Boilers with low pressure capacity are very commonly used in various types of industries for different purposes. Biomass boilers are commonly used in textile industry, agricultural industry for soil steam sterilization and in poultry farms. Ibr Steam boilers are used in chemical industries. There are also oil and gas fired boilers including other industrial boilers.
No matter where the boiler is used or for what purpose it is being used, the major aspect of using boiler productively for a long run is safety. Maintenance, operations and operator issues turn out to be major safety concerns right now. The major factors that causes on-site boiler accidents include poor maintenance, operator/human error, temperature, leakage, corrosion and water level among others. Statistics evn show that around 40% of boiler accidents are usually caused do to improper maintenance and operator or people issues.
Boiler accidents depends heavily on the safety culture practised on-site. Here are some of the steps that can be taken to improve the safety culture in the workplace.
• Start off with an equipment gap analysis. It will let you know if the equipment meet the safety standards.
• Then a human gap analysis can be conducted to make sure that the staff and workers or operators have the needed and latest knowledge about the equipment and the skill required.
• Training the operators on a regular basis must be carried out.
All in all, evolving safety culture in the work place is very important to save lives, so be proactive.
Although, human error is one the major causes of boiler accident, the causes could be related to other problems as well. Here are some measures to prevent boiler accidents.
1. The boiler should not be restarted over and over again. Thermal fatigue is caused by shutting down and starting up the boiler frequently.
2. The feed water must be pre-treated before introducing the water to the boiler. A water heater boiler and ibr steam boiler cannot operate without water. The water contains dissolved oxygen that can cause corrosion of boiler metal. This oxygen causes thinning of metal, pitting and spot penetration that causes downtime and unnecessary loss of time and money for repair/replacement.
3. It is important to regularly blow down the boiler. Build-up of scale and accumulation of sludge is caused by inadequate blowing down of the boiler. This can the boiler to heat unevenly and subsequently lead to boiler explosion. Large boilers that operate with large quantity of water inside are especially needed to be regularly blow down for greater efficiency.
4. Safety relief valves must be regularly inspected. In case of faulty operation of the boiler or when the boiler operates beyond the scope of safe operation, the safety valves goes off. If the safety valves setting are not accurate and not maintained regularly, it won’t work in emergencies and may even lead to explosion.
5. Water level must be appropriate. In cases where the water level is low, it causes overheating, hence leading to loosening of tubes and furnaces. Low water level can be easily detected and avoided. It just needs proper attention of the operator.