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Had a flange bolt shear on a feedwater heater in Kansas City last Tuesday.
We were doing a hydro test at 1500 psi when we heard a loud pop and saw a small spray from the lower bank. We isolated the section, replaced the bolt with a grade 8 from the truck, and re-torqued the whole ring. Anyone have a go-to method for checking bolt stretch on older flanges before pressure testing?
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kelly_coleman6117d ago
Buddy of mine had a similar scare last year. He uses a simple caliper check on a few random bolts now, marks them with paint. Seems to catch the ones that have stretched too far.
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nora53517d ago
That's a smart way to handle it. It's funny how the simplest fixes are often the best. You see this everywhere, people overcomplicate things when a basic check and a visual mark solves the problem. Makes you wonder how many other small, regular checks we skip that could stop big headaches later.
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