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>Russ,
>
>Here are a couple of old post that are close at hand :
>
>Maybe not exactly what you had in mind but at least closely related.
SNIP

That's more like it, much better than that valuejet nonsense.

.. As far as the first one goes, it doesn't really suprpse me much - we all
know ball valves and fast opening are bad news (though I wonder if that's
what he's really talking about - I've never seen a K tank with one). I
always have heard its good practice to try the valve on each supply tank
before they hook it up, just to get a feeling for how quirky it is - as the
post says, eevery once and a while you run into a tank with a jerky valve.
And some form of flow limitation, an orifice or needle valve (guage
snubbers work nice), right at the supply tank end of the whip is highly
recommended (I'm nowusing some oddball hose that has such a tiny hole in it
that it keeps flow rates down automatically.

The second one, now that's interesting - its the first tank fire I've heard
a reasonably authentic sounding report of, where the cause seems to be
dirty air. Would be interesting to know where the problem was, the tank or
the valve and what the rest of the setup was. It's pretty hard to start a
fire at PP pressures - my bet would be that they fire started in the valve,
and someone cranked the supply tank open without the valve on the tank
being filled being competely open. If you are pushing 2000 psi into a tank
for a total tank pressure of 400 psi or so, it makes sense for the drop to
be at the supply valve, not the tank.

Worth noting, though ,that despite what must have been considerable amounts
of available fuel that the tank didn't explode and no one was hurt.

 No one ever said HP O2 wasn't dangerous, and occasional incidents are
inevitable, just as they are with HP air. The thing is, to reach a
reasonable balance between caution, utility, and cost effectiveness.

And I don't see how a nitrox wrap would have prevented the problem.



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