You’re a maintenance tech working the night shift at a chemical processing facility. It’s hour 13 of your double shift and you’re exhausted. All you want is to wrap up your final rounds and get home to collapse into bed.
As you make your way upstairs to check a few last valves, you notice a pipe flange dripping. Annoyed, you grab your wrench to tighten the flange bolts and stop the nuisance leak so you can clock out. But wait – where’s the flange guard? You look around but don’t see it anywhere. Eh, it’s just a quick tighten, you think, too tired to bother hunting for the guard.
In your groggy state, you loosen the bolts and reach towards the flange just as scalding hot liquid bursts forth, spraying your face and arms. You cry out in agony as severe burns cover your skin. Had you taken those few extra seconds to locate and install the flange guard, this pain could have been avoided.
Unfortunately, horror stories like this are all too common at industrial facilities. The culprit? Workers bypassing or ignoring required flange guards. Let’s look at why proper flange guarding is a hill worth dying on for personal safety.
Flanges Can Maim and Kill
Flanges join separate pieces of piping and contain the passageway for hazardous substances being transported. These substances are often under extremely high pressure and/or temperature. Plant workers must remove flange guards to conduct inspections, maintenance or repairs.
Without a guard in place, inserting a finger or tool into the open flange could result in instant amputation, deep tissue burns or even death. Toxic fumes can leak out and poison workers. If flange openings aren’t capped off correctly, flammable materials may ignite and cause explosions. Clearly, flanges must be handled with great care and protected when not in use.
Skipping Flange Guards Is Tempting
So why would anyone neglect such a fundamental safety step? Unfortunately, several factors conspire to make skipping flange guards tempting:
- Time savings – It takes effort to fetch guards from storage and properly install them. Workers are always pressed for time and take shortcuts.
- Guard availability – Often there aren’t enough guards for all flanges. Workers decide to leave some unguarded rather than hunt down a guard.
- Complacency – When no accident happens for a long time, workers become complacent and assume flanges are safe without guards.
- Lack of enforcement – Facilities don’t consistently discipline those who fail to install guards, so violations become habitual.
While understandable, giving in to these temptations and operating unguarded flanges is like playing Russian roulette. Disaster may strike at any moment. No time savings or convenience is worth losing life and limb over.
Follow Proper Procedures
Instead, make the extra effort to do it right:
- Take ownership – Treat flange safety personally. Don’t rely on others to guard flanges for you.
- Locate required guards – Never open a flange until you’ve retrieved the designated guard and have it ready.
- Install guards correctly – Ensure they fully cover openings and are properly secured.
- Report problems – Notify your supervisor immediately if guards are missing or damaged.
- Set an example – Demonstrate strong flange safety practices that others will emulate.
Facilities must also do their part with robust flange management programs addressing inventory, inspection, training, and accountability. But ultimately, the frontline workers turning the wrenches bear responsibility too. By taking flange dangers seriously and refusing to cut corners, techs keep themselves and their co-workers out of harm’s way.
At the end of your grueling double shift, don’t let exhaustion and impatience put you in peril. Follow all required precautions. Because when it comes to flange safety, there are no shortcuts. So get your head in the game and guard that flange!