Flange bolt let go at Crane Yard, lucky nobody was under it

Yesterday at the Crane Yard job in Port Arthur, a 2-inch flange bolt snapped when we were torquing a blind. The gasket blew sideways and sprayed steam across the bay, we shut the line down fast. Anyone else have a bolt fail that looked fine on the outside?

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julia_carter7019d ago

And that's the thing about bolts, they can look perfect on the outside but have a hairline crack or corrosion inside the threads. We had one go on a 6-inch line a few years back, same deal, looked brand new until it just let go. Once you start torquing, that hidden stress finds a way out, so it's worth checking the torque spec and maybe doing a dye pen test on any bolt that's been in service a while.