AM-13-25 Big Mechanical Integrity Failures – Six Case Studies: What You Can Do To Prevent Them

Description:

This paper summarizes six large mechanical integrity failures, explaining what happened, why it happened, and what can be done to make sure it doesn’t happen anywhere else. Root causes and contributing causes, including failures in human systems, will be noted and not just the metallurgical explanation for why a pressure equipment component failed. The consequences of these losses involved big financial losses for the operating sites involved, and in most cases large safety risks and/or consequences. Rarely is the fundamental cause of major mechanical integrity failures new to anyone. We must learn from history in order to prevent future mechanical integrity failures.