"5 people were killed and 13 injured..."

 

This has been a horrific year in terms of quantity of Force 3 molten metal explosions. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted three catastrophic explosions that occurred in 2024. Though we knew about this incident. We missed posting it which occurred in February 2024. Here is that story:

An explosion occurred in the area of the casting shaft where aluminum rods (billets) are produced in the workshop

As a result, 5 people were killed and 13 injured

Preliminary cause analysis

In the initial stage of casting, the operator found that the ingot tray and the mold plate were stuck together and could not be separated naturally, but they did not stop the casting in time and urgently discharge the molten aluminum in the mold plate according to the regulations, but used metal rods to pry it in violation of regulations. During this process, the ingot disc is stationary, but the traction system below has been decreasing at a constant speed, and the distance continues to increase. When the ingot tray and die disc are pried open, the ingot disc loses support and falls suddenly. A large amount of molten aluminum in the mold disc suddenly cascades down and explodes in contact with the cooling water in the foundry shaft. At the time of the accident, there were also sawing, heat treatment and other process operators in the workshop, resulting in many casualties.

We offer our sincere condolences to the deceased workers and their families, friends and coworkers. We offer our sincere prayers to the injured workers. Since the news media story above we have been told that more workers succumbed to their injuries. We pray that all injured workers recover fully.

We acknowledge that the news media article is not using industry terms. But, from what we infer is that casting station had a metal hangup and instead of aborting they continued to cast. Which resulted in a bleedout that came into contact with steel, concrete, of stainless steel (which we do not think they would use that). Either the steel or concrete was bare, or it was coated with a non-approved safety coating generating the explosion.

When the investigative report is released we will update this post.

 Please comment.