exploding plastic storage tanks

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Wren Hensgen

Team 225 has managed to make one of the new black plastic tanks fail, but the failure actually occurred on the push-to-connect fitting, which snapped out under pressure. This might be an intentional design, as losing a hose is probably less dangerous than throwing shrapnel around

Oddly enough, this may be due in part to a manufacturing defect, as we've had one of the fittings come out as well, and AM has a note about it on their site. http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2649.htm

Originally Posted by JamesCH95

The compressor definitely outputs air warmer than 100F, evidenced by the compressor routinely getting "too hot to touch." I don't know if plastic tanks have ever gotten to that temperature, but the possibility is definitely there.

Next time I have the chance, I'll take some temperature readings of the tanks themselves after a few compressor cycles and see if there's any sort of noticeable increase in temperature. I wouldn't be surprised if the right setup (one where the tanks are essentially next to the compressor) was able to pump a bit of heat into the tanks...

Originally Posted by Racer26

1310s tank would have definitely seen temperatures (at least briefly) outside of that range, if only when transiting between their school and haul vehicle, and then into the venue. If the haul vehicle sat outside not running anywhere for a while, the tank could have conceivably seen temps in the neighborhood of -20C.
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That's what I was thinking as well, but didn't know enough details about the situation to really say. I'm also not sure of how well the plastic tanks would handle heat cycling, specifically being exposed to temperatures outside of the operating range, then being brought back into the operating range before use.