Spent a whole shift chasing a leak on a feedwater heater flange

We had a high-pressure feedwater heater at the plant with a weep on the main flange. Thought it was just a gasket, so we dropped it and put in a new spiral-wound. Tightened it all back up to spec, fired it up, and it was still leaking. Took us another 6 hours to finally find a tiny, almost invisible hairline crack in the flange face itself that you could only see with a dye pen. Had to pull the whole section to weld and machine it. Anyone ever had a leak that just refused to be the obvious fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylor_fox17d ago

Ugh, those hidden flange cracks are the absolute worst to track down!

paigem7617d ago

Tell me about it. What kind of setup are you running where you keep finding them? I had a job last year where the client swore they did regular checks, but the corrosion was in a spot you'd never see without pulling the whole section apart.

dixon.amy3d ago

Actually, PaigeM76's story shows it's often corrosion that hides them, not just cracks.