Boiler Safety Guide | Industrial Boilers'Common Accidents and Solutions

Gas explosions, space accidents, car rollover accidents, chemical leakage accidents, a total of 4 accidents occurred in two days, which made us have to sound the safety awareness alarm. Boiler is one of the commonly used special equipment, which is closely related to people's life. It is widely used in industrial needs, so the safe operation of the boiler is particularly important.

Understanding boiler accidents, understanding the causes of boiler accidents, and doing a good job in preventing boiler accidents are the prerequisites to ensure boiler operation safe. For this reason, EPCB has specially summarized the following four aspects to ensure the safe operation of your boiler.

Boiler Accident Classification

According to the degree of equipment damage, it can be divided into: explosion accident, major accident and general accident.

Causes of Boiler Accident

The main causes of boiler accidents are:

1) Design and manufacturing. 

The structure is unreasonable, the material does not meet the requirements, the welding quality is unqualified, the compression element is not strong enough, and other accidents caused by poor design.

2) Operation management. 

Boiler firemen violated labor discipline and operated in violation of regulations; equipment was in disrepair and exceeded the inspection period and did not conduct regular inspections; furnace firemen did not understand technology; no water treatment facilities or poor water treatment; other accidents caused by improper operation and management.

3) Safety accessories and ancillary equipment are incomplete and inoperable.

The quality of installation, modification, and maintenance is not good, and accidents caused by other aspects.

Boiler Accident Prevention

In order to prevent boiler accidents,you can take the following measures:

1) The design and modification of the boiler should comply with the relevant safety regulations and technical requirements of the boiler, the material should be qualified, the structure should be reasonable, and the calculation should be accurate. Manufacturing, repairing, and installing boilers should be constructed in accordance with technical documents and drawings, and the process and quality inspection system should be strictly implemented to ensure quality.

2) The safety accessories on the boiler must be complete, sensitive, reliable and regularly calibrated, and replaced the malfunctioning accessories in time. Do a good job in the water quality treatment of the boiler, strengthen the daily maintenance work, and regularly shut down the boiler for internal and external inspections, timely discover and eliminate hidden dangers, and prevent accidents.

3) Equipped with full-time or part-time personnel who are familiar with the equipment to manage the boiler, establish and improve various rules and regulations centered on job responsibilities, and do a good job in the management of boiler safety: the boiler staff can operate independently after they have passed the safety technical training and assessment. During working hours, it is necessary to strictly abide by labor discipline and safe operating procedures, conduct anti-accident drills frequently, and strive to improve operating techniques and the ability to judge and deal with accidents.

Measures to deal with boiler accidents

In the event of an accident in the boiler, The fireman must remain calm, and be”stable, accurate and fast” when judging the cause of the accident and handling the accident. The scene of major accidents should be protected and reported to relevant leaders in time. Before the accident is properly handled, no one can leave the post without permission. After the accident, recorded the occurrence of the accident in detail, and conducted the analysis according to the specific situation to find the main reason to prevent similar accidents from recurring. Units that have experienced boiler explosions should report the accident situation, cause and improvement measures in writing to the competent authority and the local quality and technical supervision department as soon as possible.

1. Explosion accident and solution

When the boiler exploded, a large amount of steam and water rushed out from the breach. When it came into contact with the air or the ground, it produced a huge reaction force and gained kinetic energy, which caused the boiler to vacate or move in the direction of the reaction force. A small part of the energy released when the boiler explodes is consumed in tearing the boiler steel plate, pulling off the anchor bolts that fix the boiler and various steam and water pipes connected to the boiler, and throwing the whole boiler or broken pieces away from the original place. The energy generates shock waves in the air, destroying surrounding equipment and buildings.

The main causes of the explosion are overpressure, overheating, corrosion, cracks and grooving, and congenital defects. In order to prevent boiler explosion accidents, in addition to the correct design and material selection of the boiler, ensuring the quality of manufacturing and installation, and regular inspections to keep the equipment intact, do the following special tasks during operation: keep the boiler load stable and prevent If the safety valve fails, check the pressure gauge regularly; flush the water level gauge regularly, keep the water level alarm or over-temperature alarm equipment sensitive and reliable, and keep the feed water and boiler water quality up to the standard: strengthen the shutdown maintenance, timely remove the soot, and keep the furnace dry; Keep the combustion stable and avoid sudden cooling and heating of the boiler.

2. Water shortage accident and solution

When the water level in the water level gauge drops to the lowest safe level, it is called a water shortage accident. The main reasons are: ignoring the monitoring of the water level; the installation location of the water level gauge is unreasonable; the water supply is not strengthened after the amount of steam is increased; the automatic water supply regulator fails, or the water supply is suddenly interrupted to stop the water supply; the design of the water supply pipeline is unreasonable; the water supply pipeline is fouled Blockage or rupture, damage to the valve of the water supply system, leakage or forgetting to close the blowdown valve, and the furnace tube or the economizer tube rupture.

Treatment of water shortage accidents: If you find the boiler is short of water, shut down urgently, and no water is allowed to enter the boiler.

3. Secondary combustion and flue explosion accidents and solution

The secondary combustion and explosion accidents at the end of the flue mostly occur in oil, gas and pulverized coal boilers, during ignition and shutdown or other accidents.

The main causes of the accident were improper adjustment of basic materials and air volume, low furnace temperature, insufficient secondary air supply, etc., so that the fuel was not completely burned and was taken out of the furnace to accumulate in the flue. Once the combustion conditions were met, the combustibles would re-burn Or explode; or improperly ignited or shut down the furnace, causing a large amount of combustibles to accumulate in the furnace or flue. It is easy to cause an explosion accident when re-ignited.

Treatment of secondary combustion and flue coal explosion accidents: immediately stop supplying fuel to the furnace, stop ventilation, induce air, close the flue door tightly, and if necessary, spray steam into the flue or use a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher to extinguish the fire.

Conclusion:

Safety accidents are no small matter, especially for boilers. We should practice safety production principles bit by bit, and do a good job in every step of boiler safety production. Because only in this way can you ensure that your production will not be affected and your life and property safety will not be threatened.

If you encounter other problems during the use of the boiler, you can contact EPCB boiler at any time, and EPCB can provide you with corresponding support.

EPCB, your private boiler system expert!

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