Failure Analysis of a Bolted Connection Resulting in Personal Injury
In this session we will evaluate the failure of a bolted connection for an explosion-proof enclosure that resulted in personal injury and subsequent litigation.
An individual was injured after attempting to start a piece of heavy machine. An arc-flash occurred within an enclosure that ejected the cover. During the investigation, multiple engineers were involved. The majority of the engineers attempted to determine why the arc-flash event occurred; however, what resulted in the injury was the ejection of the cover of the enclosure due to the failed bolted connection.
We will evaluate how it was determined that the connection failed, the physical evidence, the analysis, the materials involved, the UL testing for the enclosure, comparison to other manufacturer’s products, and ultimately the determination of the cause of the incident.