Chemical Burns Mate
A bosen’s mate operating a thinner recovery unit on an offshore oil and gas semi-submersible drilling rig suffered painful burns when the thinner recovery unit burst open and splashed him with the hot chemical. A thorough review of the maintenance records from the thinner recovery unit showed that this very problem had occurred only a month before but that no one had communicated the fact of the previous occurrence to the mate or anyone else on the rig. We were able to prove that the latches that were supposed to secure the lid of the thinner recovery unit could easily dislodge under high pressure and cause the contents and steam to shoot out from the rim.