Foundry worker puts wet scrap metal in furnace

[viron]

As a 40-year scrap metal worker myself, I have to say this is the luckiest forklift driver I've ever seen.

[ghostlygent]

Dude drove that forklift straight to 7-Eleven for a powerball ticket...

[bobjoatmon]

I worked briefly in a brass foundry at 16 years old and we were told that water expands from 1700 to 2000 times it's volume as it flashes to steam. They said no other substance in the universe expands as much.
The facility ALWAYS brought the scrap material in and it sat on a platform above the furnace for at least a day to dry everything out before using it to charge the furnace. One day one of the salesmen brought in a 5 gallon bucket (about 1/4 full) of old brass water valves a customer had given him. He dumped it into the next load for the furnace and no one noticed... Three people were badly burned by flying droplets of molten brass when it was dumped in and exploded.
The water expanding instantly to steam might as well be dynamite.

[zachlap]

It’s a good thing these forklifts come with a protective screen in the front

[ieatgoldmansnax]

dude was really dedicated to driving that

[johntrottier]

Worked in a foundry for 2 months. Saw this happen several times!
I could not leave that job fast enough!!

[thomasmaloney]

This is why scrap is run through a gas fired pre-heater and then conveyed into the furnace. The more intelligent foundries have this equipment.

[LOL_Garrus]

Don't you hate it when you are feeding a fire-breathing monster but it throws up on you?

[cuthwulf]

For those of you who may be interested...this looks like aluminum. Probably Class 1 (3104 alloy). The operator is charging a bale of material. First problem you see with this facility is that it's obvious their under roof storage of scrap is small, and they're bringing it in through those doors. This means it likely gets wet from rain or at the very least condensation do to dew point.
This is what is classified as a Force 2 explosion, meaning that it threw the molten aluminum at least 10-20 ft and "lifted" up a substantial part of the molten. The operator, despite the incident is EXTREMELY lucky. A Force 1 is a small "pop" or splatter. A Force 3 would've have leveled this building and likely killed all in the video. The differences between the explosions has NOTHING to do with the amount of scrap being charged or the amount of moisture/water in the scrap. With Force 1 or 2, water gets trapped under the molten, superheats, and expands over 3000 times it's size in an instant, creating a molten explosion. With a Force 3, enough molten aluminum is tossed in the air that it oxidizes with the air, stripping away the oxygen from the moisture in the air, leaving only hydrogen in gas form, which then ignites. Each year dozens of people are killed in explosions similar to this and many factories are destroyed.
Despite the operator not inspecting the scrap and charging wet scrap, the true root cause here is obvious...this factory has very little in the way of controls to determine wet/dry scrap, does not employ a preheater, and does not even train their operators at the very, very least to lay the scrap on the sill of the furnace for a few minutes before charging. It's likely a "hurry up and throw it in" type of facility. They will eventually have a fatality.

[xRipeh]

now that's a real certified forklift driver

[kayaker]

I've worked in the foundry industry for roughly 35 years. I've personally seen this happen several times. Moisture and molten metal do not mix and all charge material must be preheated and be verified as dry. I saw a plastic soda bottle, mixed with a hopper of scrap aluminium, blow the door off of a 20, 000lb reverb furnace once. Huge mess and fortunately nobody was hurt.

[lscales]

I toured a foundry one time. No where near the floor but as we are observing the people working the guide says to us “no personal liquid of any kind of allowed on the factory floor as it could cause an explosion” as a young adult I was like “oh wow” seeing this now it’s more like “oh my god” that dude is lucky to be alive.

[thonatim]

Seven year foundry worker here. It has been pointed out very well by others regarding steam expansion. However at about 1700F, hydrogen and oxygen separate. Both are extremely flammable. My first time pouring iron, one of the old timers spit in the mold and ran away. It went off like a firework when I poured my ladle. Thankfully I was not seriously hurt. All the newbies were taught this way. And to think that was actually funny in the 80s.

[MPdude]

That roof and shield absolutely saved this man’s life. This kind of work is definitely something robots would be well suited to doing once they can perform this kind of work.

[burtinhart]

I worked in foundries for ~7 years in my 20's, in the 1970's, in Kansas (KCKS, 30-ton carbon-arc furnaces) and in New York (Waverly, 20-ton induction furnaces). It is common safety practice to ensure that anything that goes into a furnace is absolutely dry, and there are often areas specifically designed to move hot air through the staging bins where that material is held, and dried, before a furnace is charged with it. Accidents, however, do happen. In one foundry, a crane operator somehow got a piece of scrap (a power piston) that had water in it and dropped it into a nearly fully charged furnace. The resulting steam explosion was horrific, and there were personnel injuries. Many of us (me included, at the time operating a Swing-Reach forklift) ran toward the furnace room to help. Luckily no one was killed, but one guy was BADLY burned. Several years later, one of the furnaces malfunctioned and poured several tons of molten iron on the pouring-room floor, closing the facility for weeks. The parent company eventually closed that facility a few years later.

[garethdean]

I worked in a place that melted aluminum once, nothing red hot, few kilos at a time.I was shown a mold with water splashed in it, filled by a can on the end o a literal twenty foot pole. Snap, crackle and splash EVERYWHERE. We'd be standing right next to it during regular casting and that was a very graphic show of WHY you made ABSOLUTELY sure the scrap and molds were dry. People had some impressive scars from honest mistakes. I'm not worried about sharks or shooters, but when I see molten metal a steam explosion is always on my mind.

[justinbailey]

I appreciate how he calmly parked his lift before going to break.

[emdowww]

0:18 I love how there is someone walking on the back and he doesn’t even seem bothered when the explosions happen. He reacts like it’s something common

[markmark]

Over 60 years ago as a child I was melting lead in a pan on the kitchen stove and had the "foresight" to wash a piece before dropping it in...Lesson learned, had a bit of a scar on my arm for years.

[junkdeal]

The only thing that will move a forklift operator faster than a flashout, is lunch call!!!