I have talked much about this subject, but I just had an interesting event occur here in my store.
A customer, previously unknown to me, walked into the store this morning to get a fill on a Luxfer aluminum cylinder. When I realized that this cylinder was originally hydro inspected on 10/82, I informed him that we no longer filled these cylinders and explained a little about the 6351T6 SLC issue. I showed him two examples of 6351T6 cylinders with cracks and the following exchange occurred.
HIM: Well, mine is fine. My dive store fills it all of the time.
ME: Sorry, but because of the potential for cracks, we do not fill them.
HIM: Mine isn't cracked. You can look for yourself.
ME: I will be glad to look at the neck threads, but we still have a policy against filling them.
HIM: If you don't mind, look. I would like to know.
So, I quickly drained the cylinder and removed the valve. AS SOON as the valve was out, I saw the crack. It didn't require a light, it didn't require a mirror. This was a sizable crack, running the length of about 6 threads. When I saw the crack, I pointed it out to him and told him that that was exactly why we had the policy.
This particular cylinder was last hydro inspected in 06/2007. It did not have a VE stamp to indicate the application of an eddy current inspection. There was a visual inspection sticker on the cylinder with the date of February 2008 punched. There was an area on the sticker that could be punched if the dive store used a Visual Eddy machine during the inspection. It was not punched. There was no store name or inspector ID on the sticker.
I offered the customer $50 for the cylinder, but he declined saying that he would "take it to his dive shop when he gets home". I felt pretty bad about that cylinder leaving here and I certainly hope the owner will point it out to someone he trusts to perform an inspection and properly reject the cylinder. Unfortunately, we don't know if that will happen and we have no authority beyond informing the customer to please remove the cylinder from service.
Phil Ellis
A customer, previously unknown to me, walked into the store this morning to get a fill on a Luxfer aluminum cylinder. When I realized that this cylinder was originally hydro inspected on 10/82, I informed him that we no longer filled these cylinders and explained a little about the 6351T6 SLC issue. I showed him two examples of 6351T6 cylinders with cracks and the following exchange occurred.
HIM: Well, mine is fine. My dive store fills it all of the time.
ME: Sorry, but because of the potential for cracks, we do not fill them.
HIM: Mine isn't cracked. You can look for yourself.
ME: I will be glad to look at the neck threads, but we still have a policy against filling them.
HIM: If you don't mind, look. I would like to know.
So, I quickly drained the cylinder and removed the valve. AS SOON as the valve was out, I saw the crack. It didn't require a light, it didn't require a mirror. This was a sizable crack, running the length of about 6 threads. When I saw the crack, I pointed it out to him and told him that that was exactly why we had the policy.
This particular cylinder was last hydro inspected in 06/2007. It did not have a VE stamp to indicate the application of an eddy current inspection. There was a visual inspection sticker on the cylinder with the date of February 2008 punched. There was an area on the sticker that could be punched if the dive store used a Visual Eddy machine during the inspection. It was not punched. There was no store name or inspector ID on the sticker.
I offered the customer $50 for the cylinder, but he declined saying that he would "take it to his dive shop when he gets home". I felt pretty bad about that cylinder leaving here and I certainly hope the owner will point it out to someone he trusts to perform an inspection and properly reject the cylinder. Unfortunately, we don't know if that will happen and we have no authority beyond informing the customer to please remove the cylinder from service.
Phil Ellis
