Frisco
06/07/2000, 03:31 PM
I got my excitement for the day... There was a small explosion in one of our labs this morning while I was working nearby...
We make light detectors (similar to a PAR meter) and one of the by-products of one of our processes is white phosphorous... (For those that don't know, it burns in air) We normally run this machine with hydrogen and purge it with nitrogen at the end of the process. Once the hydrogen is purged from the system, a small amount of air is injected to oxidize the phosphorous in a controlled amnner. So as we began the purge sequence, a leaky valve was switched that apparently allowed some air into the system. This caused the white phosphorous to burn, which in turn ignited the residual amount of hydrogen left inside. It definitely made me jump when it blew! Thankfully, the entire thing took place inside an enclosed hood and the only damage was a (very expensive) glass furnace tube. I'm not sure whether I'm lucky to be alive or just to have a job that gives me so many thrills!
We make light detectors (similar to a PAR meter) and one of the by-products of one of our processes is white phosphorous... (For those that don't know, it burns in air) We normally run this machine with hydrogen and purge it with nitrogen at the end of the process. Once the hydrogen is purged from the system, a small amount of air is injected to oxidize the phosphorous in a controlled amnner. So as we began the purge sequence, a leaky valve was switched that apparently allowed some air into the system. This caused the white phosphorous to burn, which in turn ignited the residual amount of hydrogen left inside. It definitely made me jump when it blew! Thankfully, the entire thing took place inside an enclosed hood and the only damage was a (very expensive) glass furnace tube. I'm not sure whether I'm lucky to be alive or just to have a job that gives me so many thrills!