1) Product Caution Notice Relating to Commercial Diving Equipment: Gas Conditioner Cartridges
What happened?
JFD has issued a Product Caution Notice to inform you of a potential safety issue with commercial diving equipment manufactured/supplied by JFD. JFD are aware of a potential safety issue and are advising our customers and end users that all stock of this item requires inspection before use.
This product caution notice applies to the following equipment supplied by JFD:
What went wrong?
A manufacturing defect has been identified with a batch of the components used for the bottom nozzle of the cartridge. Some of these nozzles are misshapen and will not correctly seal the disposable cartridge into the stainless-steel pressure housing. This will lead to a certain amount of the non-treated gas bypassing the cartridge and not being subject to the treatment provided by the chemicals within the cartridge.
JFD recommends that all Disposable Cartridges are subjected to the following inspection before use:
Pre-use inspection:
1. Visually inspect the nozzle on each cartridge to check for damage similar to that shown in Figure 1.
2. Grip the nozzle between the thumb and forefinger and rotate the cartridge to check for flat spots, out of roundness and any other damage missed during the visual inspection.
3. Using suitable digital callipers, check the OD of the nozzle is 20.7mm/20.6mm as shown in Figure 2. A number of different diameter measurements should be taken to confirm the roundness of the nozzle.
Possible indication of damage during use (B1562A only) is a higher than expected CO2 level in the post scrubber gas sample immediately after cartridge change. This may indicate gas bypassing the cartridge.
Damaged Cartridge
Any unit which is found or suspected to be defective should not be used and should be returned to JFD for replacement. Any item of which the user is unsure of its suitability can be returned to JFD for assessment.
If you have any queries or need any additional information, please contact JFD at sales@jfdglobal.com Members may wish to refer to: IMCA D 02-19
2 Corrosion: Failure of Bolts on a Cargo Barge Bollard
What happened?
During pipelay operations a cargo barge was moored port side to the pipelay vessel to enable pipe loading. Mooring lines were secured to the cargo barge’s bow, stern and mid-ships bollards. Due to adverse weather, an additional mooring line was attached to the centre bow bollard of the cargo barge. As this additional mooring line was picked up by the vessel winch, the centre bow bollard ‘toppled over’. There were no personnel in the vicinity of the bollard during this operation.
An all-stop was called and the winch was operated to slacken the mooring line. Upon inspection, it was found that the bollard was in very poor condition and that all of the securing bolts were corroded, to the extent that they were not connecting the bollard to the deck of the barge.
What went wrong? The findings:
What lessons were learned?
Members may wish to refer to:
3 LTI: Engineer Injured Following Engine Room Slip/Trip
What happened?
An engineer was injured when he stepped on a loose deck plate. The incident occurred during a dry dock, when an engineer was walking in the engine room searching for a tool and he stepped on a loose floor plate. The floor plate was not bolted down and slipped sideways. As the plate moved, his leg started falling to the bilge well below, and the opposite end of the plate flipped upwards and struck his abdomen. He sustained a large laceration to his abdomen which was attended to in the local hospital and required seven days off work to recover.
What went wrong?
There had been recent overhaul of diesel generators; when completed, floor plates removed to facilitate that overhaul had been replaced but were not screwed down.
What were the causes?
Contributing causes identified were:
Root cause analysis identified that standards, policies and administrative controls were not used effectively – enforcement was not adequate.
o the shipyard safety bridging document had been signed, but was not properly completed and did not effectively bridge between vessel and shipyard safety systems
o there had been daily morning meetings of supervisors of all parties in attendance, but these meetings had discontinued a week prior to the incident;
o job safety analysis (JSA) and task planning
o personal protective equipment (PPE) – the injured person was wearing a light t-shirt instead of a full coverall which contributed to the severity of the injury
o hazard observation – the hazard posed by the existing arrangements of the flooring plates in the engine room had not been properly identified;
o managing contractors and third-parties – successful integration and supervision of sub-contractor workforce was not applied despite procedures being in place. This led to a loss of control and safety oversight of their activities to some extent as well as a diminishing of the safety culture.
What lessons were learnt?
What actions were taken?
Members may wish to refer to:
4 Subcontractor ROV Control Room Damaged by Fire
What happened?
An unmanned ROV control room container, located on the deck of accommodation jack-up, caught fire. The fire team extinguished the on-board fire without any injury to personnel. However, the ROV control room, as well as the ‘suitcase ROV’ (buoyancy fairing and chassis) were badly damaged.
What went wrong? What were the causes?
What lessons were learned?
Members may wish to refer to:
To read the full Safety Flash click here.
Association of Diving Contractors International