Steel Torpedo tipped over in South Wales

[mozzer models]

TATA steel Port Talbot  , Torpedo tipped over carrying molten steel from
the blast on to standing water. Instantly quenching the steel causing multiple explosions...

Link to the BBC

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-48062141

[mozzer models]

Driver and shunter managed to get away with minor injuries

[Fat Controller]

The two personnel were very lucky indeed.

[Wickham Green]

38 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

The two personnel were very lucky indeed.

.... unlike the enthusiast visiting one of the Chinese steelworks a few years ago - got caught by a 'slop' from a slag ladle.

[JeffP]

I well remember the accident on the Appleby Frodingham works in Scunthorpe, when molten iron from the Queen Victoria blast furnace was poured into a torpedo containing water.

Eleven men lost their lives. 4/11/1975

 

As for slag ladles..... we hated the damned things. They often passed when we were walking from the mess to work etc, and were to be avoided. Not just slop, but they could often erupt due to a bubble of gas which could chuck a few litres of slag skywards...

Edited April 26, 2019 by JeffP

[mozzer models]

another link

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/inside-tata-steelworks-after-massive-16185222?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wales_main&fbclid=IwAR2Jdow2wasJJHyqIi3jQ8KC6DoL8QLKBgAma7czQM1CtpKfI0JEy-XrZ8U

[Fat Controller]

I wonder if they'll be able to salvage that ladle; I suppose that depends on how much metal was left inside.

[Titan]

It does appear that it looks much worse than it actually was.

[Dava]

'When molten steel hits a puddle' doesn't have the ring of 'When s**t hits the fan' but the effects are much more dramatic.

 

Fortunately no serious injuries.  The energy in molten steel or indeed slag is tremendous.

 

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by Dava
Colloquialism

[JeffP]

It's the water as is the problem. Mix it with molten iron/steel, it INSTANTLY turns to steam at a high temperature, and thus occupies 1,700 times it's original volume...aslo instantly. The resulting volume change is the explosion and chucks molten metal everywhere.

[brian daniels]

These torpedo's are a bit warm!

[JDW]

Something similar happened at Aldwarke last year too as steel was being poured.  I believe the mould had rainwater in, which had the same explosive effect.  We heard the explosions from 10 miles away.

[Fat Controller]

It happened in the latter days of the foundry my father worked at, BSC Landore, which manufactured  ingot moulds. The moulds used for the castings were made of sand, bound with molasses, then baked for a long period, before they encountered hot metal. Somehow, an incorrectly-dried mould was sent to the casting bay; the crane driver started to pour, and was killed by the resultant blast of hot metal.