Explosion in a surface treatment plant

Event

Event ID: 1092
Quality: 2
Description: The incident occurred in a facility for chrome-plating metals.
At the time of the event, a metal roller was being chrome-plated. A short circuit occurred due to a defective contacting (contact rails) on the rectifier. This short circuit caused a spark to reach the surface of the electrolyte bath, and the spark ignited the hydrogen produced during chrome plating, causing an explosion.
Various windows within the company were destroyed, but nobody was injured.
Event Initiating system: Hydrogen System Initiating Event
Classification of the physical effects: Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences: Explosion
Macro-region: Europe
Country: Germany
Date: 18/10/2006
Main component involved?: Reactor / Oven / Furnace / Test Chamber
How was it involved?: Internal Explosion (H2-Air Mixture)
Initiating cause: Conventional Component Failure (Electricity, Power)
Root causes: Material/ Manufacturing Error
Root CAUSE analysis: The INITIATING/direct cause is a defective rectifier contact which spark-ignited the hydrogen produced during the chrome plating process.

Number of injured persons: 0
Number of fatalities: 0
Environmental damage: 0
Currency: Euro
Property loss (onsite): 500
Post-event summary: Various windows within the company were destroyed. The rectifier had to be repaired and tested.

Corrective Measures: Increased control of the contacts on all rectifiers in operation.
Isolation of the rectifiers using a new cover.
Use of another wetting agent (low foam).

Reference & weblink: Event from German database ZEMA<br />
https://www.infosis.uba.de/index.php/en/binaries/asset/zema_ereignis/33… />
(accessed December 2023)