"oil line bursts...linked to furnace"

The use of hydraulic fluid in our plants is common place. The leaking of hydraulic fluids in our plants is also commonplace. What happens when that fluid leaks depends on whether or not the hydraulic fluid is flammable. Here is a recent story emphasizing the need of non-flammable hydraulic oil.

A fire crew was called to an aluminium smelter in the South Pacfic Aluminium in the early hours one day during the week of January 12, 2020 to monitor a burst hydraulic oil line linked to a furnace at the smelter.

The incident occurred about 1am. An aluminium smelter spokesman said it was standard procedure to alert authorities during that type of situation. He said there were no injuries, no damage to equipment and production at the site was operating as normal.

We are ecstatic that no one was injured in this incident. No doubt when the leak was observed to occur safety measures were enacted. Good job!

We have posted numerous incidents where hydraulic lines leaked that resulted in the atomizing the fluid. If the fluid was flammable a fire typically result. Either the leak did not result in the fluid atomizing in a fine spray or the fluid was non-flammable. The APSB recommends that all hydraulic fluid be non flammable.

The Aluminium Times Magazine had an article on this topic. The article can be downloaded here.

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