150# Ammonia Cylinder Rupture continuation

Hi all

I stumbled upon this fascinating thread about the ammonia cylinder rupturing by chiefbecker. The thread is closed already which is a pity but chiefbecker did say he will post the results of the forensic report. Waiting very much for it :)

After reading the thread I think he answered his own question as to why it ruptured.

Chiefbecker said, " It was removed with a number of empty cylinders and returned to the supplier. The supplier found that it still had about 3/4's of liquid left in the bottle and they returned it to us in April so that the crew could finish emptying it. So when they started to charge it into the system it was only a partial at the time. "

After reading this I think the refrigerant only partially came out the first time it was used but on the second time refrigerant would go in the opposite direction into the bottle so hence there could be a fault in the bottle valve itself.

Just my thoughts.:confused:

I do not see how the fact that it was 3/4s full could have contributed to the accident. I hope chiefbecker will be able to let us know what the conclusions were.

It was a full cyclinder. They used only 1/4. They sent it back to the supplier. The supplier gave it back to them. They tried to use the remaining 3/4 but it ruptured.

What I’m trying to say is that there was some difficulty in the bottle fitting in releasing the refrigerant the first time. On the second time the bottle fitting had reverse flow and filled up the bottle which caused the rupture.