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>This data was apparently from David Wallace at the Rocky Mountain
>Center for Occupational Safety and Health at the University of Utah.
>Based on the above info, it doesn't sound like a good idea to use PVC
>for compressed air, although I have seen it in a lot of places.
>John Giles
The main issue here has to do with the stored energy from compressed
gasses in the event of a failure. Some friends of mine were killed
when a steam line failed while under pressure. They were not killed by
the steam but by the explosive release of the steam. They found one of
them 150 feet away from the site of the rupture hanging from a 4th
story rafter in the building. He had been on the first floor. The
force of the release threw an 12" diameter steel pipe elbow through an
18" structural beam and 100 yards out side the building. Obviously an
extreme example but imagine having your air header fail and having to
have the emrgency room doctor spend hours picking plastif out of your
hide. The ASME went to water pressure testing of coded vessles and
piping because if there is a leak or a break the energy is dissipated
without imparting momentum to the container.
Just my $.02
Bruce Brandt
bbrandt@tcmail.frco.com
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