Death from Fill Station

[Magotman]

Is there any truth to the rumor that this was a home-made fill station? I've heard that he used Brass parts from fire department fittings to rig it together.

[Spray Painter]

that very unfortunent(sp). this will make me think twice every time i fill my HPA rnak again

[Wheelman]

Very sad, my condolences to his family, unfortunatley this isn't the first time there has been a casualty filling paintball tanks. One of the shop owners here has a folder that has actual photos from fill station accidents that he uses for his fill classes (one shows a brand new tank that had no marks on it at all that was filled to 2800psi before it exploded, the next showed what was left if the guys hand that was filling it) He also has some of paintball related eye injuries he shows to newbies who lift there masks on the field (they don't do it again) You guys here from Rogue have probably seen it.

[RobAGD]

Well some conjuncture on my part from what I have read and having worked with these pumps for a while now, here is an idea of what MIGHT have happened.

I would be willing to bet he hooked HP air to the LP drive side and the setup was beyond it work load limits and failed.

It will be intresting to find out what happened.

As to holding hoses, typically a bad idea, I have seen them whip and break fingers, A guy that works at our field got popped twice in one day in the groin area, because he was slacking and the slip collar didnt lock down the fill whip. Just think about that

-Robert

[paint magnet]

Whoops, mean to say 68/3000...

Hope the family can get over this and see it as a freak accident and not take it out on paintball.

[circus5]

personal incident with a JAVA Co2 bottle

I was almost seriously injured recently by a C02 bottle. It was a JAVA (kingman) CO2 tank (12 oz). I was at my local field (home?) taking in returned rental equipment as a fellow employee was filling a CO2 bottle. our fill station is right next to our equipment window. The fill station started venting gas out of somewhere, and the guy who was filling it was acting confused (he was fairly new to operating the system) so i reached up and closed the valve between the bank and the fill line. I turned back to my window and BAM! the co2 bottle slammed into the ground next to me, grazing my foot!(hurt like hell) another inch and i t would have broken my toes. the BOTTLE AND VALVE SEPERATED. I know that this is nothing compared to the tradgedy at Paintball USA, but still it is UNACCEPTABLE.



*EDIT* I changed your title, so as not to encourage any possible legal action. You had a fluke incident, which can't be said of ALL Kingman products. Hope you understand. Army

[JJBrookshire]

Details needed

Java (aka Kingman) needs to be informed of this. It is possible that the valve unscrewed from the cylinder or the threads stripped out or the valve snapped among other things. Each of these means entirely different things to the manufacturer and to the "safety" level. I encourage everyone that if you ever believe that you have seen a manufacturer defect or safety issue to inform the manufacturer immediately. If you don't think they are reacting appropriately, send me an email and I'll be glad to assist you. This should be done before making any public remarks that might be misunderstood and result in liability exposure to the player that is simply trying to do the right thing. It will also allow the manufacturer the most advanced notice as possible, so that they can correct the problem if it is indeed a safety issue.
Valves unscrewing from cylinders are a relatively common occurance due to the less than perfect methods of applying and curing the thread bonding agent as well as other potential assembly errors. This is why most valves have a cross drilled hole through the threads that go into the cylinder. If the valve begins to unscrew, the cylinder will leak until an thus drain itself of CO2 and more importantly alert the fill station operator that there is a problem.

[Hellaspaint]

Here is what happened in a friend in Greece. He was playing with a 48 ci alu bottle with Pure Energy reg on his gun,- the screw on type. He finished the game and took off the bottle from the gun. ( the pressure was under 1000psi ). Then he was filling the bottle from a SCUBA tank and put it on a table. Next day he find the room in a bombing situation. The bottle was in another place and of course empty! What happened? He did not noticed that the regulator was separate from the bottle by, may be 1/2 turn when he took it from the gun. He did not unscrew by holding the regulator!! The low pressure in the bottle allowed that "separation". The strange AND THE GOOD is that the internal o-ring blow after a few hours of the filling and the bottle act like a rocket in an empty room.
Sorry of my poor english. I hope you understand what i want to say and i wish that accident in USA be the last for the paintball community.

[SeeK]

Whatever was the final finding of cause?

[Tufiremn]

Hellaspaint post made me stop and think. Our HPA bottles are the only type of HPA that I can think of that have threads inline with the ones that secure the Reg to the tank. All others have thier outputs at 90 degrees to the bottle. Over time it might be possible to slighlty unscrew the reg out of the bottle with just everyday use.

As for filling a bottle fast, there is heat generated though not enough to cause the damage that would lead to failer. The fast filling would raise the temp less than 100 degrees. Compare this to the temps that SCBA bottles see in fire conditions (1200+) w/o failer, and you'll see that the fast filling doesn't stretch those molicules all that much. What does happen when you fill a bottle too fast is because the air is hotter, and takes up more space you get less air in a fill.

Like Cphillip said, Fire stations use enclosers when filling HPA tanks, and yes their tanks are the same as ours only bigger. I have been in the fire service for over 11 years and have filled 1000's of tanks w/o failer of any component. Yet I still stay redundent with all safety measures. Most high end fill stations for SCBA's use a thick steel incloser, and have several pressure safeties in place. The lower end cascade setups can be made safe with shielding and distance. As someone said, this might cause the insurance to go up unless more safety measures are taken, and that might just be what needs to be done.

As for holding the fill line in your hand. Are Fing kidding me. I don't care who you are, if that line lets go it has the ability to take your are off. At very least you'll never be able to hand on, and probably get the crap beat out of you before you can get away.

The incident that brought this topic ti light will be investigated in depth by OSHA/NIOSH/DOT, and probably a few other goverment safety groups. They will then post thier findings and recommendations on how to make it safer. I just hope that more stricter regulations come out on the use of our HPA systems.