Nicked a steam line this morning and my whole day went sideways

Was taking out a section of old 4-inch pipe near a drum and my bevel grinder caught the edge of a live line. Had to shut down half the plant for 3 hours while we patched it up. Anyone else ever get caught by hidden lines when you think you've got the layout mapped?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_felix6d ago

Man I did something almost exactly the same last fall on a compressor skid. Had this old 3/4 inch steam tracer line that wasn't on any of the drawings we had. My grinder kissed it for about half a second and then we had a 20-foot plume of steam shooting up. Took us four hours to find the right shutoff valve because someone painted over the tag. I think the worst part was my foreman just standing there shaking his head while I tried to figure out which way to run. Now I treat every pipe like it's got something hot in it until I personally confirm otherwise.

zaranelson6d ago

Honestly, what finally worked for me was just getting a portable thermal camera and scanning every line before touching it. Ngl, it saved my ass more than once.

paige_bell816d ago

And it's funny how life does the same thing, you think you got it mapped out and then bam, surprise steam lol.