Hi community,
the question that I have been asking myself lately is whats up with all these non certified tanks that are commonly sold? How is it legal to build or sell such a vessel?
here are some common examples:
https://shopbvv.com/collections/solvent-tanks/products/double-jacketed-stainless-steel-lp-tank
What kind of liability is associated with this?
These vessels should be designed and built in accordance with ASME VIII and the appropriate division. Furthermore, each piece of equipment should be designed, built, and certified to 3A
sanitary standards. Followed by appropriate workspace classification, processes, flammables storage, and waste management.
It’s not rocket science, it’s the right thing to do to protect the health of consumers and the safety of employees. Those that can’t follow these basic regulations don’t deserve to be in business.
These regulations don’t exist to say you can’t do something, the regs are the consensus on how to do it safely.
And as to liability for not using appropriate equipment, any bad attorney could drive through the barn door that’s been left open for them.
Unless it’s below 15psi pressure differential or under 6" diameter (the later about to change FYI) it needs to be ASME stamped in most jurisdictions. Not all, but most. The bigger question is whether the authority in that authorization will throw a padlock on the door if they see unstamped vessels. In Ohio you’re doomed. In NH you’d be lucky if there was anyone who could spell ASME.
I think you made a typo there. It needs to be ASME stamped if it’s above 15 psi and 6 in.
You are very correct! Listen to what I think, not what I say
The caveat with the 15psi differential is that it is based on a failed cooling system. So when you’re running chilled solvents and the chiller fails, pressure is going to build, rapidly.
Google ‘bleve’ and enjoy the popcorn.
Shit could blow up. That’s a risk with ASME stuff too, because there’s always the possibility that someone spec’ed the wrong tank/pressure spec, someone operated it wrong or a critical component failed, but at least with ASME stuff there’s probably some traceability and insurance from the company that made the tank.
BVV is AFAIK nothing but cheap imported shit, same as you’d find on Alibaba or Wish, and doesn’t even spec rated pressure for the tank you linked. If you were to sue over a failure (assuming there were enough pieces of you left to stitch together after things went kaboom), you could probably find a US judge to agree with you, and probably have approximately a snowballs chance in hell of actually collecting on any sort of judgement against the manufacturer.
I was always surprised too, being in Bhogart watching them sell hige machine that will have 100’s of #s of gas in the system ro people who had no clue and were openly saying they were stepping up from open blasting and not even making tbem take some kinda “safety, informational “ class of something. Always figured they’d get sued
I mean Bhogarts customer service has always been dogshit, they’re just worried about getting that initial sale why should they be worried if the customer blows up their whole city block?
Oh i know but from a legal stand point i would have figured 1 of there 2 brain cells would have spoke uo
You are 100% correct, pressurized systems that require some sort of external system to stay below pressure are super dangerous for exactly that reason. It’s one of the biggest cost factors in any cryogenic system and is the same issue with designs that account for jacket pressure to reduce she’ll thickness. Last time I checked though, all of the requirements you’d need on an ASME user design specification for a vessel with these features are NOT required if the design pressure is less than 15psig.
It’s also worth noting that even if vessels under those criteria don’t need to be ASME stamped, they still can (should) be.
When you buy cheap and unvalidated stuff it just means your asking for a explosion or accident. Non certified stuff basically means your supplier essentially wants you to buy hardware they aren’t liable for. Thei manufacturer is based on guarantees. If they made and sold it they would be entirely liable. Buying stuff for less than material costs in America to make quality gear shows you don’t value your own life your neighbors lives or any staff member in your labs.
Buy American Made from an ASME shop, not just “sold by Americans in America”
You’d be surprised how many known companies sell Chinese stuff with fake certs.
The owner of PSI engineering gave a good interview about this.