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A bad weld on a 3/4 inch steam line in a Philly plant...
We were doing a shutdown job about eight years back, replacing a section of old steam line. I was prepping a joint for a new valve, and my partner laid down what looked like a solid root pass. Pressure test came up fine, but when we fired the boiler back up, we got a steady hiss from the flange. The weld had a cold lap you couldn't even see. We had to shut it down again, cut out a six inch section, and redo the whole thing under the plant manager's watch. Lost a full day of production time for them. Ever had a weld pass a test but fail under real heat?
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haydenburns6mo ago
Pressure tests lie when the metal expands.
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the_reese5mo ago
Wait, so pressure never tells the truth then?
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victor3896mo ago
Okay but if the metal expands, the pressure reading goes up. That's the whole point, it shows the real stress on the system.
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