Michele Williams on tue 2 apr 02
This is for Phil Poburka in particular and anyone else who is using gas
kilns and must have the new valves on cylinders.
I guess this is my first crack at being a "guru", and please take it for
what
it is. My husband is a distributor of natural gas equipment in the Americas
and works with suppliers from 6 different countries. He is a civil engineer
in the gas industry and is also a safety engineer. He holds a patent on one
of the new OPD devices that Phil was complaining about, so when someone asks
him a question about it, he really knows what he's talking about. So
please, this information and advice doesn't come from me, though I am
writing the message. I have worked with him in his business for years, so I
know the background here and I can tell you this is all very true. He asked
me to pass this information on to all of you.
1. The remark about lobbyists lining their pockets and their friends
profiting from their efforts. False.
Truth: The new valves are a result of repeated lawsuits against the
industry for accidents of specific types. The Feds required the industry to
come up with solutions for these accidents, and these new valves are the
result.
Our story: My husband worked for 3 months to come up with his design and
has worked for over a year with the patent office to finish the paperwork.
Everything was
very rush-rush because the Feds put time deadlines on when these valves had
to be ready to market. Now there are time deadlines on installation. My
husband will make about 1.5 cents on each valve that has his adaptation in
it. We are not marketing this valve in the U.S. yet. It has already been
patented in Thailand and we are marketing to South America and the Caribbean
because they are also requiring the new valve protections. Gee, third world
countries working faster at updating that the US? Why?
Because these new valves are reducing accidents. Several countries in South
America are updating their refineries and natural gas operations at this
time, and the new valves were just available--so the government required it.
There is also a requirement for a new function in these valves that is NOT
on the market. Colombia, where my husband first approached the market for a
new adaptation he's just finished for additional safety, just incorporated
it into their newest legislation. We are the only supplier for this valve,
but we may make nothing on that valve in Colombia--our largest market. They
are stalling around waiting for someone among their friends to rip off the
design my husband has created. (Graft and corruption are nothing here
compared to there! You guys worry about someone copying a pot--how about
someone ripping off your entire business and giving it to a friend or
relative and no one is culpable?) They will require about 4 million
valves--a tidy sum, not a killing, we might make from such a contract--but
they prefer to give their money to their friends or relatives for ripping
off my husband's inventions.
By reducing the accident rates, they reduce their liability, and they will
have more profit to keep for themselves. And there is profit--Colombian
laborers make about $50 a month, while the business owners are making
$20,000 a month and think nothing of it. The family of a laborer who is
killed in a propane accident may sue for $50,000 and think it is an immense
sum. Greedy owners attempt to settle for half that, and would rather have
no accidents than lawsuits or settlements. What works, works--and helps
them keep their money. That's why their market is more aggressive about
these safety devices.
2. These valves were not designed to give anyone profit. They were
designed for three specific safety factors.
OPD--overfill protection device
1. Obviously, to prevent the tanks from being overfilled. When the tanks
are filled, they are only filled to 80% capacity to leave room for expansion
of the liquid as it vaporizes to leave the tank when the valve is opened.
Over-full tanks push too much gas out at one time, faster than the user
burns it, and ka-boom! There goes another filling operation.
2. Part of the new valve is to prevent too much gas from escaping at one
time. This was one of the largest reasons for accidents with propane
cylinders and tanks because when too much gas escapes, explosions are
usually the result. That's when buildings go ka-boom and people turn to
applesauce.
3. Part of the new valve is to shut off the valve completely if there is a
problem with the lines that are filling it. This prevents too much gas from
coming into the cylinder too fast during filling operations.
Obviously, these are needed precautions. This valve would have prevented
the majority of the accidents that have happened in the past with propane
cylinders, and will protect us in the future.
Now about the safety of changing handles and filling tanks yourself from
other cylinders. Please, please don't try this. Changing handles seems
like a small thing, but it requires special tools to prevent damaging the
outlet valve when you do this, and you don't have the tool. The tool is
part of machinery in recycling and refurbishing operations and is not
anything you can get or would have. It is part of a huge piece of
manufacturing equipment and private owners do NOT have tools that will do
this job safely. If you damage the outlet valve (and you will), too much
gas will escape at one time--i.e. ka-boom you go, or bye-bye to your studio
(and home?)
Filling these tanks yourself from other tanks is deadly dangerous. Hundreds
of people in third world countries attempt to make a living from taking a
little gas from one tank to another while they deliver the propane cylinders
to homes around their cities. They think they can make a little extra money
from taking one empty cylinder on the truck and filling it with a little
from each of the 100 tanks they have on the truck--and what homeowner will
miss 1 pound of gas from a 35-pound cylinder? Do they weigh them at
delivery? No. So these guys think everything is hunky-dory. Until they
blow themselves and 100 tanks of gas up one day. It happens all the time.
So common it doesn't even make the news unless it happens near the home of
some government figure. Or blows up phone installations and disrupts
business somehow.
Please, don't change the handles, don't refill your tanks yourself. Bite
the bullet and live a long and happy, creative life. When we have enough
income that I can afford to do so, I will buy one of your creations (see how
rich we're getting from these valves?) and be so happy that you and the
rest of the ClayArters are safer with the new valves.
Live long, prosper! Stay centered on what is truly important...not nickels
and dimes...LIFE!
Michele Williams
Roger Korn on tue 2 apr 02
I dunno, the old 80% valves worked well enough for me. I won't let anyone fill my
tanks without me supervising, but your point that not everyone has the knowledge or
will to learn the procedures is well taken, and the OPD certainly does a better job
of preventing overfilling through ignorance.
Roger
Michele Williams wrote:
> This is for Phil Poburka in particular and anyone else who is using gas
> kilns and must have the new valves on cylinders.
>
> I guess this is my first crack at being a "guru", and please take it for
> what
> it is. My husband is a distributor of natural gas equipment in the Americas
> and works with suppliers from 6 different countries. He is a civil engineer
> in the gas industry and is also a safety engineer. He holds a patent on one
> of the new OPD devices that Phil was complaining about, so when someone asks
> him a question about it, he really knows what he's talking about. So
> please, this information and advice doesn't come from me, though I am
> writing the message. I have worked with him in his business for years, so I
> know the background here and I can tell you this is all very true. He asked
> me to pass this information on to all of you.
>
> 1. The remark about lobbyists lining their pockets and their friends
> profiting from their efforts. False.
>
> Truth: The new valves are a result of repeated lawsuits against the
> industry for accidents of specific types. The Feds required the industry to
> come up with solutions for these accidents, and these new valves are the
> result.
>
> Our story: My husband worked for 3 months to come up with his design and
> has worked for over a year with the patent office to finish the paperwork.
> Everything was
> very rush-rush because the Feds put time deadlines on when these valves had
> to be ready to market. Now there are time deadlines on installation. My
> husband will make about 1.5 cents on each valve that has his adaptation in
> it. We are not marketing this valve in the U.S. yet. It has already been
> patented in Thailand and we are marketing to South America and the Caribbean
> because they are also requiring the new valve protections. Gee, third world
> countries working faster at updating that the US? Why?
>
> Because these new valves are reducing accidents. Several countries in South
> America are updating their refineries and natural gas operations at this
> time, and the new valves were just available--so the government required it.
> There is also a requirement for a new function in these valves that is NOT
> on the market. Colombia, where my husband first approached the market for a
> new adaptation he's just finished for additional safety, just incorporated
> it into their newest legislation. We are the only supplier for this valve,
> but we may make nothing on that valve in Colombia--our largest market. They
> are stalling around waiting for someone among their friends to rip off the
> design my husband has created. (Graft and corruption are nothing here
> compared to there! You guys worry about someone copying a pot--how about
> someone ripping off your entire business and giving it to a friend or
> relative and no one is culpable?) They will require about 4 million
> valves--a tidy sum, not a killing, we might make from such a contract--but
> they prefer to give their money to their friends or relatives for ripping
> off my husband's inventions.
>
> By reducing the accident rates, they reduce their liability, and they will
> have more profit to keep for themselves. And there is profit--Colombian
> laborers make about $50 a month, while the business owners are making
> $20,000 a month and think nothing of it. The family of a laborer who is
> killed in a propane accident may sue for $50,000 and think it is an immense
> sum. Greedy owners attempt to settle for half that, and would rather have
> no accidents than lawsuits or settlements. What works, works--and helps
> them keep their money. That's why their market is more aggressive about
> these safety devices.
>
> 2. These valves were not designed to give anyone profit. They were
> designed for three specific safety factors.
>
> OPD--overfill protection device
>
> 1. Obviously, to prevent the tanks from being overfilled. When the tanks
> are filled, they are only filled to 80% capacity to leave room for expansion
> of the liquid as it vaporizes to leave the tank when the valve is opened.
> Over-full tanks push too much gas out at one time, faster than the user
> burns it, and ka-boom! There goes another filling operation.
>
> 2. Part of the new valve is to prevent too much gas from escaping at one
> time. This was one of the largest reasons for accidents with propane
> cylinders and tanks because when too much gas escapes, explosions are
> usually the result. That's when buildings go ka-boom and people turn to
> applesauce.
>
> 3. Part of the new valve is to shut off the valve completely if there is a
> problem with the lines that are filling it. This prevents too much gas from
> coming into the cylinder too fast during filling operations.
>
> Obviously, these are needed precautions. This valve would have prevented
> the majority of the accidents that have happened in the past with propane
> cylinders, and will protect us in the future.
>
> Now about the safety of changing handles and filling tanks yourself from
> other cylinders. Please, please don't try this. Changing handles seems
> like a small thing, but it requires special tools to prevent damaging the
> outlet valve when you do this, and you don't have the tool. The tool is
> part of machinery in recycling and refurbishing operations and is not
> anything you can get or would have. It is part of a huge piece of
> manufacturing equipment and private owners do NOT have tools that will do
> this job safely. If you damage the outlet valve (and you will), too much
> gas will escape at one time--i.e. ka-boom you go, or bye-bye to your studio
> (and home?)
>
> Filling these tanks yourself from other tanks is deadly dangerous. Hundreds
> of people in third world countries attempt to make a living from taking a
> little gas from one tank to another while they deliver the propane cylinders
> to homes around their cities. They think they can make a little extra money
> from taking one empty cylinder on the truck and filling it with a little
> from each of the 100 tanks they have on the truck--and what homeowner will
> miss 1 pound of gas from a 35-pound cylinder? Do they weigh them at
> delivery? No. So these guys think everything is hunky-dory. Until they
> blow themselves and 100 tanks of gas up one day. It happens all the time.
> So common it doesn't even make the news unless it happens near the home of
> some government figure. Or blows up phone installations and disrupts
> business somehow.
>
> Please, don't change the handles, don't refill your tanks yourself. Bite
> the bullet and live a long and happy, creative life. When we have enough
> income that I can afford to do so, I will buy one of your creations (see how
> rich we're getting from these valves?) and be so happy that you and the
> rest of the ClayArters are safer with the new valves.
>
> Live long, prosper! Stay centered on what is truly important...not nickels
> and dimes...LIFE!
>
> Michele Williams
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
--
Roger Korn
McKay Creek Ceramics
In AZ: PO Box 463
4215 Culpepper Ranch Rd
Rimrock, AZ 86335
928-567-5699 <-
In OR: PO Box 436
31330 NW Pacific Ave.
North Plains, OR 97133
503-647-5464
Philip Poburka on tue 2 apr 02
Dear Michele.
What you have to say here, if I boil it down, is that the New 'valves' are
intended to preclude overfilling of the portable Tanks.
I may mention that watching the technician 'fill' your Tank could also be a
method of seeing to it that the Tank is not 'overfilled'.
If you get tanks that are already filled, then maybe you don't know what is
up with them, and in that case you could weigh them and find out...if you
don't like how much is in them, bleed it off till you do.
Escapeing Gas does not 'usually' (ahem) make for an 'explosion' or
combustion or similar of what, while being filled, or at any other time,
unless there is an ignition
source at hand which will do the trick of igniteing it.
This I would take to be 'common sense'.
Third world people do not need to be patronized with costly crap to
'protect' them from themselves, AND certainly not by their or our
governments.
Information as to HOW to improvise, HOW to do things as they may need TO do,
HOW to make 'do'...well now, THAT maybe IS worth something.
AND I do not think they are any more stupid than the rest of us when it
comes to that...they learn, they screw up...thry figure out how to do things
or not, life goes on...it went on up to now too, for them TO be there in all
their, and us in all our 'perils', yes?
Governments are bad at that...very bad on the whole...they like to 'tell',
never to 'inform'...
It is neither the business or the rightfully allocated job of the federal
government to demad that I or you or anyone spend money to enable and reward
an industry to make 'new' products and make as well some hundreds of
millions of dollars, to produce an enforced or
coerced substitute for me watching the guy filling the Tank, or me weighing
it to satisfy meself as to it's volume.
Anyone can and may do this.
And...it is FUN!
Try it!
One need not be 'gifted', though maybe now-a-days it would help.
Then too, the "Laird heps he whay heps hisself" too, yes?
Yes...
You simply watch the 'reels' or meter, and if the guy is dreaming about
'lunch' or broads or something, you say, "Hey bud...yer overfilling the
little puppy
here!"
And he'll say, "Oh-shit!...sorry...", and bleed it back into the right
volume of Capacity.
No....big...deal....
Now I do not like this 'law' and I do not respect it one bit.
I do not like or respect anything about it.
I say it is decietful, pandering, and exploitive. I say it is a thinly
veiled attempt to
put one over on people, it is corrupt and represents insider advantage and
imposition and juicy
windfall 'deals', and will fleece the american public out of hundreds of
millions of dollars they did not need to spend.
People, 'consumers' could be reminded of THEIR role, should they decide to
accept it, in
watching when they have Tanks filled. Or weighing the little 'puppies'...
That would do it.
And it would not cost them thirty or fourty bucks, or thirty or fourty bucks
a 'pop' for all the Jugs they may own and want to refill now and then.
WHAT???? ASK SOMETHING OF PEOPLE!!!! OUTRAGE!!!!
?
Why not 'require' that certified technicians are doing the 'filling'?
They 'certify' the accuracy of the pumps...of the apparatis, yes?
Why not that?
Is it because we care so much about some third world country where 'make-do'
sometimes makes troubles?
I do not think so!
At 1.5 cents a 'valve' royalties, times maybe some tens of millions of
valves...well, a 'tidy' sum indeed!
Was it fifty million jugs or so I heard spoke of in the 'news'?
Of course you are all for it!
No more 'late-pay-total' on that pesky phone bill!
Mom an' Dad a beamin' with pride !
Sheesh!
Too bad it was not an Honorable 'invention' or one which could find it's
place in an honorable way...that makes me a mite sad.
This is steeped in imposition and wrong thinking.
I do not like it one bit.
I do not want the federal government forceing me, coerceing me, charging me
money to accept enforced coercive, doubious and evasive justifications as
are intended to take from me of my wit TO attend to my own
buisiness, or as in this case 'watch' the people who DO things as 'fill' a
Propane jug. Or to weigh it at my liesure as I may see fit.
I do not want or need them to decide for me oweing to how some small
percentage of people may have got hurt.
They will get hurt anyway, one way or another.
Ol' uncle scam was happy to inject 'Plutonium' into prisoners necks and so
on, loose nerve gas now and again an' watch the 'emergency room' data...etc
and MANY of etc...and I am moved to tender sympathies with their nurturin'
paternal tendencies towards me too.
Civil suits or the vexations and troubles they represent or for which they
may seek ammends are also no business of the federal government in this kind
of way. If juries are mostly ne'r-do-well emotional boobs trying to see to
it that their vapid lives are vindicated by votes to punish and reward, well
THAt is a 'problem' that should NOT be the 'tail' that wags trhe 'dog'.
That is 'why' there ARE 'civil' suits...for people to settle grievences or
dispurtes as may arise...it presently has passed beyond ALL bounds oif the
rational or sane and IS becomeing in itself an enormous vexation that
systemicly poisons EVERYTHING in Commerce and our daily lives.
Shame on them!
Uncle scam should stay the hell out of it, OR busy himself with some
'educational' and edifying information things as will interest people TO
know.
Not patronize or encourage or firther enable and reward it.
That would be 'enough', and 'enough' is ALLWAYS on the right side of
'too-much', or so say this Citizen.
Enough would be fine with me.
Enoiugh would be information...and let me look out for myself, thanx.
Thanks for the little deeebate here!
Good to stirr the pot some...IDEAS and the posibilities we may yet learn to
THINK, are worth the trouble...
Yes?
Yes!
Phil
Las Vegas...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michele Williams"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 11:35 AM
Subject: New propane valves--a long MUST read
> This is for Phil Poburka in particular and anyone else who is using gas
> kilns and must have the new valves on cylinders.
>
> I guess this is my first crack at being a "guru", and please take it for
> what
> it is. My husband is a distributor of natural gas equipment in the
Americas
> and works with suppliers from 6 different countries. He is a civil
engineer
> in the gas industry and is also a safety engineer. He holds a patent on
one
> of the new OPD devices that Phil was complaining about, so when someone
asks
> him a question about it, he really knows what he's talking about. So
> please, this information and advice doesn't come from me, though I am
> writing the message. I have worked with him in his business for years, so
I
> know the background here and I can tell you this is all very true. He
asked
> me to pass this information on to all of you.
>
> 1. The remark about lobbyists lining their pockets and their friends
> profiting from their efforts. False.
>
> Truth: The new valves are a result of repeated lawsuits against the
> industry for accidents of specific types. The Feds required the industry
to
> come up with solutions for these accidents, and these new valves are the
> result.
>
> Our story: My husband worked for 3 months to come up with his design and
> has worked for over a year with the patent office to finish the paperwork.
> Everything was
> very rush-rush because the Feds put time deadlines on when these valves
had
> to be ready to market. Now there are time deadlines on installation. My
> husband will make about 1.5 cents on each valve that has his adaptation in
> it. We are not marketing this valve in the U.S. yet. It has already been
> patented in Thailand and we are marketing to South America and the
Caribbean
> because they are also requiring the new valve protections. Gee, third
world
> countries working faster at updating that the US? Why?
>
> Because these new valves are reducing accidents. Several countries in
South
> America are updating their refineries and natural gas operations at this
> time, and the new valves were just available--so the government required
it.
> There is also a requirement for a new function in these valves that is NOT
> on the market. Colombia, where my husband first approached the market for
a
> new adaptation he's just finished for additional safety, just incorporated
> it into their newest legislation. We are the only supplier for this
valve,
> but we may make nothing on that valve in Colombia--our largest market.
They
> are stalling around waiting for someone among their friends to rip off the
> design my husband has created. (Graft and corruption are nothing here
> compared to there! You guys worry about someone copying a pot--how about
> someone ripping off your entire business and giving it to a friend or
> relative and no one is culpable?) They will require about 4 million
> valves--a tidy sum, not a killing, we might make from such a contract--but
> they prefer to give their money to their friends or relatives for ripping
> off my husband's inventions.
>
> By reducing the accident rates, they reduce their liability, and they will
> have more profit to keep for themselves. And there is profit--Colombian
> laborers make about $50 a month, while the business owners are making
> $20,000 a month and think nothing of it. The family of a laborer who is
> killed in a propane accident may sue for $50,000 and think it is an
immense
> sum. Greedy owners attempt to settle for half that, and would rather have
> no accidents than lawsuits or settlements. What works, works--and helps
> them keep their money. That's why their market is more aggressive about
> these safety devices.
>
> 2. These valves were not designed to give anyone profit. They were
> designed for three specific safety factors.
>
> OPD--overfill protection device
>
> 1. Obviously, to prevent the tanks from being overfilled. When the tanks
> are filled, they are only filled to 80% capacity to leave room for
expansion
> of the liquid as it vaporizes to leave the tank when the valve is opened.
> Over-full tanks push too much gas out at one time, faster than the user
> burns it, and ka-boom! There goes another filling operation.
>
> 2. Part of the new valve is to prevent too much gas from escaping at one
> time. This was one of the largest reasons for accidents with propane
> cylinders and tanks because when too much gas escapes, explosions are
> usually the result. That's when buildings go ka-boom and people turn to
> applesauce.
>
> 3. Part of the new valve is to shut off the valve completely if there is
a
> problem with the lines that are filling it. This prevents too much gas
from
> coming into the cylinder too fast during filling operations.
>
> Obviously, these are needed precautions. This valve would have prevented
> the majority of the accidents that have happened in the past with propane
> cylinders, and will protect us in the future.
>
> Now about the safety of changing handles and filling tanks yourself from
> other cylinders. Please, please don't try this. Changing handles seems
> like a small thing, but it requires special tools to prevent damaging the
> outlet valve when you do this, and you don't have the tool. The tool is
> part of machinery in recycling and refurbishing operations and is not
> anything you can get or would have. It is part of a huge piece of
> manufacturing equipment and private owners do NOT have tools that will do
> this job safely. If you damage the outlet valve (and you will), too much
> gas will escape at one time--i.e. ka-boom you go, or bye-bye to your
studio
> (and home?)
>
> Filling these tanks yourself from other tanks is deadly dangerous.
Hundreds
> of people in third world countries attempt to make a living from taking a
> little gas from one tank to another while they deliver the propane
cylinders
> to homes around their cities. They think they can make a little extra
money
> from taking one empty cylinder on the truck and filling it with a little
> from each of the 100 tanks they have on the truck--and what homeowner will
> miss 1 pound of gas from a 35-pound cylinder? Do they weigh them at
> delivery? No. So these guys think everything is hunky-dory. Until they
> blow themselves and 100 tanks of gas up one day. It happens all the time.
> So common it doesn't even make the news unless it happens near the home of
> some government figure. Or blows up phone installations and disrupts
> business somehow.
>
> Please, don't change the handles, don't refill your tanks yourself. Bite
> the bullet and live a long and happy, creative life. When we have enough
> income that I can afford to do so, I will buy one of your creations (see
how
> rich we're getting from these valves?) and be so happy that you and the
> rest of the ClayArters are safer with the new valves.
>
> Live long, prosper! Stay centered on what is truly important...not
nickels
> and dimes...LIFE!
>
> Michele Williams
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
__
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
Viviane escolar on thu 4 apr 02
fair enough that you complain, but this is a public listing and what you say
about my country affects us. believe it or not there are a lot of hard
working honest people in Colombia trying to survive a war, and there is a
lot of death being caused by gas cylinders which the guerrilla use to
bombard small rural towns out of existence. Perhaps your husband's device
could help save a few farmer's lives. No point in making USA look good at
the expense of making someone else look bad. We are living an unlivable
situation in Colombia, and trying to make the best of it. we do not complain
and live with terrorism all around us, every day, 24 hours a day. I too have
had unpleasant experiences with Americans, but I do not put your country
down in a public forum.
vivianne escolar.c.
Because these new valves are reducing accidents. Several countries in South
> America are updating their refineries and natural gas operations at this
> time, and the new valves were just available--so the government required it.
> There is also a requirement for a new function in these valves that is NOT
> on the market. Colombia, where my husband first approached the market for a
> new adaptation he's just finished for additional safety, just incorporated
> it into their newest legislation. We are the only supplier for this valve,
> but we may make nothing on that valve in Colombia--our largest market. They
> are stalling around waiting for someone among their friends to rip off the
> design my husband has created. (Graft and corruption are nothing here
> compared to there! You guys worry about someone copying a pot--how about
> someone ripping off your entire business and giving it to a friend or
> relative and no one is culpable?) They will require about 4 million
> valves--a tidy sum, not a killing, we might make from such a contract--but
> they prefer to give their money to their friends or relatives for ripping
> off my husband's inventions.
>
> By reducing the accident rates, they reduce their liability, and they will
> have more profit to keep for themselves. And there is profit--Colombian
> laborers make about $50 a month, while the business owners are making
> $20,000 a month and think nothing of it. The family of a laborer who is
> killed in a propane accident may sue for $50,000 and think it is an immense
> sum. Greedy owners attempt to settle for half that, and would rather have
> no accidents than lawsuits or settlements. What works, works--and helps
> them keep their money. That's why their market is more aggressive about
> these safety devices.
>
> This is for Phil Poburka in particular and anyone else who is using gas
> kilns and must have the new valves on cylinders.
>
> I guess this is my first crack at being a "guru", and please take it for
> what
> it is. My husband is a distributor of natural gas equipment in the Americas
> and works with suppliers from 6 different countries. He is a civil engineer
> in the gas industry and is also a safety engineer. He holds a patent on one
> of the new OPD devices that Phil was complaining about, so when someone asks
> him a question about it, he really knows what he's talking about. So
> please, this information and advice doesn't come from me, though I am
> writing the message. I have worked with him in his business for years, so I
> know the background here and I can tell you this is all very true. He asked
> me to pass this information on to all of you.
>
> 1. The remark about lobbyists lining their pockets and their friends
> profiting from their efforts. False.
>
> Truth: The new valves are a result of repeated lawsuits against the
> industry for accidents of specific types. The Feds required the industry to
> come up with solutions for these accidents, and these new valves are the
> result.
>
> Our story: My husband worked for 3 months to come up with his design and
> has worked for over a year with the patent office to finish the paperwork.
> Everything was
> very rush-rush because the Feds put time deadlines on when these valves had
> to be ready to market. Now there are time deadlines on installation. My
> husband will make about 1.5 cents on each valve that has his adaptation in
> it. We are not marketing this valve in the U.S. yet. It has already been
> patented in Thailand and we are marketing to South America and the Caribbean
> because they are also requiring the new valve protections. Gee, third world
> countries working faster at updating that the US? Why?
>
>
> 2. These valves were not designed to give anyone profit. They were
> designed for three specific safety factors.
>
> OPD--overfill protection device
>
> 1. Obviously, to prevent the tanks from being overfilled. When the tanks
> are filled, they are only filled to 80% capacity to leave room for expansion
> of the liquid as it vaporizes to leave the tank when the valve is opened.
> Over-full tanks push too much gas out at one time, faster than the user
> burns it, and ka-boom! There goes another filling operation.
>
> 2. Part of the new valve is to prevent too much gas from escaping at one
> time. This was one of the largest reasons for accidents with propane
> cylinders and tanks because when too much gas escapes, explosions are
> usually the result. That's when buildings go ka-boom and people turn to
> applesauce.
>
> 3. Part of the new valve is to shut off the valve completely if there is a
> problem with the lines that are filling it. This prevents too much gas from
> coming into the cylinder too fast during filling operations.
>
> Obviously, these are needed precautions. This valve would have prevented
> the majority of the accidents that have happened in the past with propane
> cylinders, and will protect us in the future.
>
> Now about the safety of changing handles and filling tanks yourself from
> other cylinders. Please, please don't try this. Changing handles seems
> like a small thing, but it requires special tools to prevent damaging the
> outlet valve when you do this, and you don't have the tool. The tool is
> part of machinery in recycling and refurbishing operations and is not
> anything you can get or would have. It is part of a huge piece of
> manufacturing equipment and private owners do NOT have tools that will do
> this job safely. If you damage the outlet valve (and you will), too much
> gas will escape at one time--i.e. ka-boom you go, or bye-bye to your studio
> (and home?)
>
> Filling these tanks yourself from other tanks is deadly dangerous. Hundreds
> of people in third world countries attempt to make a living from taking a
> little gas from one tank to another while they deliver the propane cylinders
> to homes around their cities. They think they can make a little extra money
> from taking one empty cylinder on the truck and filling it with a little
> from each of the 100 tanks they have on the truck--and what homeowner will
> miss 1 pound of gas from a 35-pound cylinder? Do they weigh them at
> delivery? No. So these guys think everything is hunky-dory. Until they
> blow themselves and 100 tanks of gas up one day. It happens all the time.
> So common it doesn't even make the news unless it happens near the home of
> some government figure. Or blows up phone installations and disrupts
> business somehow.
>
> Please, don't change the handles, don't refill your tanks yourself. Bite
> the bullet and live a long and happy, creative life. When we have enough
> income that I can afford to do so, I will buy one of your creations (see how
> rich we're getting from these valves?) and be so happy that you and the
> rest of the ClayArters are safer with the new valves.
>
> Live long, prosper! Stay centered on what is truly important...not nickels
> and dimes...LIFE!
>
> Michele Williams
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
| |
|
