OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #709733
BURN,COOKER,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,STEAM,HIGH PRESSURE,PRESSURE RELEASE
Event description
Employee burned by steam from pressure vessel
Investigation abstract
The lid of a pressure cooker was captured by the invented strap and was forced a ed. Coworkers stated that the cookers were never operated at pressures in excess of 90 psi and temperatures of 350 degrees Fahrenheit. At the time of the accide nt, the cookers were operating at only 50 psi and at a temperature considerably less than 350 degrees Fahrenheit. At 50 psi, there would have been 12,000 lb of pressure against the surface of the lid. gainst the lip of the filler neck as the belts lowered and pressed against the c enter of the lid. The separation between the lid and stress bar increased the se aling pressure. The nut and sleeve should have been in one piece, but material f ailure occurred at the radius where the sleeve was smaller than the diameter of the hot nut. This failure caused skin stress to be concentrated on the form thre ads of the nut, which stripped, allowing the lid to be lifted 2 to 3 in. The sec uring bolt and the sleeve were pushed away from the stress bar and byproducts an d steam exploded from the cooker. Employee #1 sustained burns and was hospitaliz
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 22 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 6
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 12
- Environmental factor
- 11
- Task assigned
- 1
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.