Learned this morning of a fatal accident at one of our sister quarries in the South East US. Guy was doing repairs on a water pump. Impeller screwed on the shaft with a blind hole in the impeller and the back side of impeller is sealed with an oring. Apparently guy was having problem breaking the impeller loose so he tried heating the center with a torch. Problem was when impeller was installed the cavity in the impeller had been filled with grease to keep it from rusting. When heated with torch the grease expaned and blew the center out of the impeller. In the picture I saw it looke to be about a 2 to 3 inch disk maybe a 1/4 inch thick. No details on where it hit the guy who was killed or if it was the guy running the torch. I know we all have used heat to loosen something rusted or just palin tight but need to think about what else could happen. It was suggested that a hole could have been drilled in the center of the impeller to relieve pressure. Guess if impeller was to be reused a simple 1/4 inch pipe plug could be installed to seal it back up. One other idea would be if the hole was taped and a grease fitting installed one could possibly use a grease gun to hydralically pop the impeller off. Be careful out there, and think of what could happen if something goes wrong.
It's what you don't know..... condolences :angel
Scary, because that's something I wouldn't have thought of either. His family will be in my prayers.
Not something most of us would expect best wishes to his family
Done stuff like that a 100 times never thought about something like that happening. My prayers and condolences to the family .
That was unexpected. Thanks for sharing the story to hopefully save someone else from having a similar experience.
Well we finally got the full report on this accident. Seams when the center of the impeller shot out it hit the victim in the leg and severed an artery causing him to bled out in short order. Link to MSHA FatalGram: http://www.msha.gov/FATALS/2014/FAB14m14.asp
Thanks for the update. I learned something from your informing us of the accident. Hopefully it will help others also.