I was having an educational conversation with a 2nd year apprentice (Australia) the other day. The conversation centred on refrigerant cylinders, handling, tying them down in vehicles etc. He told me that the cylinders (according to his TAFE lecturer) had to be stood upright. I queried this and his answer was that his lecturer said it was due to the fact that we can only fill cylinders to 80% of their volume. And that if the cylinder was laid on it’s side that the liquid in the cylinder would cover the valve and that somehow this would render the over pressure device inoperable. I personally think that this is a load of rubbish as there are no markings on the cylinders that say ‘THIS SIDE UP’ or arrows and I clearly remember filling a large capacity R22 plant with 500 kilo cylinders that were horizontally.
Could anyone out there tell me if this is so and what are the reasons.