Safe Handling of Cylinders

High-pressure Gas Cylinder Safety and Handling is the main concern. Most people don’t care about the same. In simple words, It is a way of death if one doesn’t care about the safety of the cylinder, but with safety and proper handling of the cylinder, it is a boon to the success of the industry.

High-pressure gas cylinders are cylinders having contents of a gaseous state. Pressure cylinders possesses huge potential energy, which can lead to disasters on enormous scale to life and damage to properties, if not managed with appropriate safety measures during transportation, unloading, storage, handling and use.

Let’s understand the safety and Handling of High-Pressure Gas Cylinder through this blog.

Handling of Cylinders:

High-pressure gas cylinders should be only handled by people who are properly trained in safe handling techniques and who are familiar with the associated hazards. Improper handling of gas cylinders can lead to falls, strains, bruises, or broken bones. Mishandling can lead to other hazards such as chemical burns, cold burns, fire, poisoning and explosion, if harmful gases accidentally escape from the cylinder.

Following do’s and don’ts can be useful to prevent injuries caused by the improper handling of compressed gas cylinders.

DO’S

• Move cylinders using a suitable trolley or hand truck.
• Using appropriate PPE for cylinder handling is a must. Wear leather gloves, safety glasses, safety shoes and other appropriate protective equipment.

• Ensure that cylinders are secured while in-transit, storage or use.
• Close the cylinder valve properly, install the cylinder cap, replace and secure any valve outlet seals while returning cylinders to the supplier.
• Use a cradle or proper cylinder cage to lift a cylinder.
• Take extreme care and restrict the movement of portable cylinder banks on smooth, clean and level stationary surfaces.
• For localized manual movement of a portable bank, use two people. Ensure no one comes in the bank’s travel path. Also, be aware of escape routes should the bank get out of control or start falling. Use a crane, forklift or other appropriate material handling equipment if a smooth level surface is not available to move the portable bank.

DON’TS

• Lift the cylinder by its cap using a magnet.
• Try to catch a falling cylinder.
• Drop cylinders or allow them to strike with each other violently.
• Use cylinders as rollers for moving material or other tools.
• Drag or slide cylinders, not even for short distances.
• Subject cylinders to mechanical shocks which may cause damage to their valves.
• Tamper with pressure-relief devices.
• Permit grease, oil or other readily combustible substances to come in contact with valves, cylinders or other equipment in oxidizer service.
• Remove any product labels or shipping hazard labels.
• Refill compressed gas cylinders. (This is required to be done only by qualified producers of compressed gases.)