Equipment Usage Beyond Design Parameters

While working on a project for a city engineer we were diverted somewhat to look at a city owned incinerator on the local landfill site. The firebrick lining of the unit had been replaced and was showing signs of premature deterioration for a second time. The brick liner was solid in some spots but was surprisingly quite friable in others. The outer surface of the unit was a painted steel shell that had several distinct patches on which the paint had been partially destroyed by overheating.

The unit had been designed to burn normal household refuse, which has a relatively low heat value. The city had been able to offset some operating costs by selling "off hours" time on the incinerator to local businesses who had refuse compatible with the intended use of the equipment. The premature deterioration of the firebrick liner and the scorching of the exterior shell all suggested that the equipment had been operated for a period of time at excessive temperatures. When the operating logs were examined and the evening shift operators were interviewed it came to light that a particular contractor had been including drums of solids and wastes in with the household refuse materials being burnt. Some of these drums had caused spectacular flare-ups when they were fed into the furnace.


A Mysterious Disappearance from a Ring Box

An insurance investigator asked for our assistance in a file that had come across his desk. An expensive diamond ring had mysteriously disappeared and an insurance claim had been filed. On reviewing the case it was alleged that the ring, in its original box had been left in a jacket pocket that had been put through the wash. The box survived the wash but the ring had vanished. The box submitted for examination appeared to have come straight out of the display case, the nap on the velvet was soft, plush and showed no evidence of being matted. The velvet itself was firmly glued to the inside of the soft iron metal from which the box structure had been stamped.

We tested the box by opening it and submerging a corner in room temperature tap water for five minutes. At the end of the immersion time period the box was air dried for about half an hour and then examined. Where the water had contacted the velvet the glue dissolved and the soft iron rusted. It was obvious that the box had not been through the rigors of an agitated, water filled, washing machine cycle either at room temperature or at the higher temperature of a normal cycle. When confronted with the truth about box the full story of the previous sale of the ring was revealed.