Hey everyone, I thought it could be useful and fun to share safety tips or lessons learned. Maybe some stuff which we otherwise wouldn't think of but would be glad to learn by exchanging stories rather than finding out the hard way. I'll get things started with a close call which happened at my place of work last week:
My boss and the apprentice were carrying new argon bottles (50 liter, 200 bar) out of the back of our van. They had the bottle horizontal with the boss standing in the van, holding it by the screw-on cap and the apprentice standing in the drive way holding the base of it. The cap came off the bottle and the valve end fell straight down onto the concrete floor. The valve took the impact and and plastic grip shattered but the valve itself didn't break off, which was a relief for the apprentice who was still holding the other end of the bottle at groin height. I guess if the valve had broken off he would have just got launched through the air. We looked at the bottle later and the threads for the cap were completely wrecked, which explains why I just fell off all of a sudden.
So the lesson I learned is that even if the bottle is new and the cap is screwed on and taped over, I will definitely be checking it's secure every time before transporting the bottle.
Take care!