What would you have them say: "We don't use burst discs?"Originally Posted by OutlawCaver
Welcome to the Cave Diver's Forum.
What would you have them say: "We don't use burst discs?"
No. More interested in their opinion on risk mitigation on values that have burst discs versus those that do not.
I'm still with Forrest on that. The average European diver might have a personal opinion (but probably not) or may possibly have an opinion along the lines lf "one less thing to mess with". However it's almost certain that most, like their American counter parts, won't have any statistical data about the value of burst discs versus no burst discs.
In our business, (gas business), we have had cylinders go boom with the appropriate burst disc in place. One of my clients has one that did so a few years back, a CO2 cyl which don't have a great deal of pressure behind them. Even so, It blew the cyl across the highway. No one hurt but it did get their attention. There was a dive shop owner killed a few years back by a 72 steel, it also had a burst disc, but hadn't been hydro tested or VIP for a long time.
To be fair to our european friends, many countries require pressure testing more frequently than the US and Canada.
So burst disc or no burst disc? Perhaps you should approach the problem in this way; If you fill your own cylinders, then do what you please. If you are giving your cylinder up to someone else who is unwittingly filling an incorrectly disc protected cylinder and something goes wrong, it will be your ass. The same goes for a cylinder being overfilled, the filler bears the ultimate responsibility if something goes wrong, with or without a properly rated disc.
The chances of a catastrophic failure are very remote, but they do indeed happen, both in the gas industry as well as the dive industry.
What ever the OP decides, he should know that if something does go awry, it may not be him that is hurt.
You may have noticed that I haven't stated my position. I won't for obvious reasons. I fill my own cylinders and dive a breather so I am self sufficient.
Safe diving
Dale
An independent diver.
I remember that one, and I also recall a 72 that went off in a car trunk. Blew the whole back end off the car. The one in the car had serious rust, and pitting though.
A burst disc is not a magic bullet. It is designed to rupture between 90% and 100% of the test pressure. What that does is guarentee that the burst disc will rupture and vent the contents before a properly inspected and serviceable tank will catastrophically fail. The important point here is that if you take away proper testing and inspection, and as a result have an unserviceable tank with cracks, line corrosion, pitting, etc that can no longer handle it's test pressure, then all bets are off.
I don't skip hydro tests and my tanks get VIP'd every year whether they need it or not - regardless of what is used for the burst disc assembly.
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