Caught a hairline crack in a steam drum just before pressure test

I was on a boiler retube job outside of Baton Rouge last spring. We were buttoning up the steam drum after a long week, and I noticed this thin little line running along a weld near the nozzle. It was maybe 2 inches long, barely visible unless the light hit it just right. I flagged the foreman and he called for a dye penetrant check. Turned out it was a subsurface crack that would have blown open at 400 psi. That shutdown cost us 2 extra days but saved the whole crew from a potential disaster. Any of you guys ever caught something like that right at the last minute?

2 comments

2 Comments

jade6391mo ago

Man that's the kind of thing that sticks with you forever. I saw something similar once on a heat exchanger tube sheet where a tiny indication turned out to be a full crack after MT. The foreman almost brushed it off because we were already behind schedule but I pushed him to check it. Good thing I did because it would've let go during hydro and sent tube bundles flying everywhere. It is wild how those little lines that look like scratches can be death traps waiting to happen. You probably earned some serious respect from that crew for catching it.

thomas8621mo ago

Funny how the stuff that saves lives never makes it into the production report though.