terry_bailey35•6d agoProlific Poster

Saw a scary looking boiler at a paper mill near Green Bay last week

I was up in Wisconsin visiting a buddy who works at a paper mill and he showed me their main boiler setup. One of the old water tube boilers had so much scale buildup on the sight glass you could barely see the water level. The safety valve looked like it hadn't been tested in years too. He told me the plant manager just keeps putting off the annual inspection. Has anyone else run into a situation like that where the owners won't pay for proper maintenance?

2 comments

2 Comments

anna7586d ago

Scale buildup that bad on a sight glass is a HUGE red flag. If that boiler ever got a sudden surge or the water level dropped too fast, it could flash steam and cause a catastrophic failure. I've heard of plants that pushed inspections too far and ended up with a tube rupture that shut down the whole mill for months.

the_william6d ago

Flash steam usually happens from pressure drop, not water level surge.