Inspection ports

Lids and/or inspection ports opened while in operation leading to loss of containment, loss of inerting, operator exposure. 

Interlock so that it is not possible to operate centrifuge if lids and/or inspection ports are open... 

Vessels are sometimes contaminated by material left over from a previous use. For example, tank trucks were filled with a waste sludge containing particles of aluminum. One day the tank truck contained some caustic soda left over from the previous load. The caustic soda reacted with the aluminum, producing hydrogen. The increase in pressure blew open an inspection port and knocked an operator onto the ground. 

Blind flanges (blank flanges) are flat plates, used to blank off flange connections, and as covers for manholes and inspection ports. 

J.F. Moore and V.C. Ravichandran, Better imaging the key to better cargo inspection, Port Technol. Int., 10th Edition (1999) 113—118. 

Once the pass partition baffle fails, the process fluid may bypass the finned tubes, and cooling efficiency is greatly reduced. This is bad. But worse yet, during a turnaround of the cooler, there is normally no way to inspect the pass partition baffle. There is no easy way to visually verify the mechanical integrity of this baffle. A few air coolers have removable inspection ports for this purpose most do not. 

Draft readings are a comparison of two pressures taken at the same elevation and are traditionally quoted in inches of water gauge. Whereas it is true that if you open an inspection port on a heater in an area of positive draft, you are liable to singe your eyebrows if you wish to really study or make sense of a set of draft readings for a furnace, you must first normalize the data. 

To suppress afterburn and minimize energy losses caused by in-leakage of cold ambient air, any holes in the heater walls, convective section, ducts, etc. should be patched. Also make sure that inspection ports are closed. Leaks can be detected on stream to a certain extent by visual inspection (crumbling chalk dust or dropping a little baking powder past a suspected leak will pinpoint the leak). 

Figure 10-5 An inspector using an infrared camera periodically monitors furnace tube temperatures through the inspection port holes.

J. Shaft drive sprocket AT. Inspection port L. itator paddle... 

Schematic (plan view) of glass surface in the furnace based on information obtained through specialized video data and visual observations through furnace inspection ports, indicating bubbler location and estimated spring zone position. (From Hayes, R. R., Brewster, S., Webb, B. W., McQuay, M. Q., and Huber, A. M., Experimental Thermal Fluid Science, 24,35-46,2001.)...

Inspection ports are usually fixed to the side of the tower to permit inspection of the condition of the packing and to allow it to be topped... 

Pressure vessels are designed for a postulated or expected design life. In addition the possibility of periodic inspections is of importance. Thus it is required to provide inspection ports in terms of handholes or manholes as necessary. The detailed description of the mode of operation, the definition of the rate of change of fluid temperatures as well as the number of occurrences of various transient events need to be specified. 

The oil must be examined periodically. Inspection ports are provided for this purpose. If the oil becomes contaminated, it must be replaced or drained and filtered. 

The requirement for inspection ports or hatches for clearing possible blockages or tramp material and/or cleaning of the casing. 

Samples for analysis are usually obtained by scraping accessible surfaces. In open systems or on external surface of pipelines or other underground facilities this can be done directly. For low pressure water systems, bull plugs, coupons or inspection ports can provide a way to expose specimens representative of internal surfaces [15], However, more sophisticated devices are required for pressurized systems to allow mounting an assembly on a standard pressure fitting [16]. 

Do not stand directly in front of an inspection port while you open it, in case there is positive pressure behind it. 

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