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28 November 2002
A Safety Alert about Milnes DN 250 gunmetal tapping saddles
has been issued by the Water Services Association of Australia
(WSAA).
The following information is extracted from the WSAA Safety
Alert 02-01 November 2002.
"Sydney Water Civil Maintenance
at Seven Hills has recently experienced a failure of
a Milnes
DN 250 gunmetal tapping
saddle at Lyton Street Blacktown. The tapping saddle can
be identified by its markings:
- 286 O.D.
- D/R
- 250 N.B
- Milnes Aust
- A sticker with the number: 60B25020 on the inside of
the bottom half of the tapping band was also evident.
The tapping saddle failed at the bolted connection. The
failure appeared to be an overload type failure possibly
due to a change in design of the cast section at the bolted
connection boss and the presence of significant casting
defects.
The failure is considered to be a potential safety hazard
if failure should occur during an under pressure tapping
operation.
This particular size of Milnes saddle has been the subject
of an investigation by Sydney Water due to failures experienced
by Construction Services at Albion park in October 2002 (incident
notification #391). This investigation found that a faulty
batch of Milnes DN 250 gunmetal tapping saddles had been
manufactured.
Sydney Water have issued
instructions to return all existing stock of Milnes DN
250 gunmetal
tapping saddles to Milnes-Gatic
for exchange. Corrective Action by Milnes is To be advised."
WSAA recommends that members
and associates should investigate as appropriate to their
water
reticulation operation and
maintenance OH&S policies and procedures.
For more information contact:
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