[time-nuts] Man killed in quartz crystal accident

Bob Camp lists at rtty.us
Sun Nov 24 19:53:37 EST 2013


Hi

NDK has multiple plants growing quartz around the world. They also have a number of competitors in that business. There are better places than NDK to buy high end bars.

Bob

On Nov 24, 2013, at 7:00 PM, Bill Hawkins <bill at iaxs.net> wrote:

> This is not as far from time-nutty things as it might appear.
> 
> NDK makes precision crystal oscillators from those crystals. One of them
> is an OCXO less than an inch (20 mm) square and half that high with
> stability of 3x10E-9 over the range of -40 to 85 C. Annual drift is
> typically 50x10E-9. The data sheet is at:
> http://www.ndk.com/en/news/2013/1190702_1616.pdf
> 
> The CSB released an impressive video of the incident last month. It is
> in the final report at:
> http://www.csb.gov/ndk-crystal-inc-explosion-with-offsite-fatality-/
> 
> The financial forecast for NDK shows 50 to 60% drop in profits for the
> same sales in 2013. If that was also true in 2009, management was
> motivated to maximize production with what they had. The original
> consultant strongly recommended inspections for stress corrosion
> cracking, but strong recommendations do not have financial penalties. It
> has become obvious that money is the only thing that matters at the
> management level these days.
> 
> Oh, and don't bother trying to Google for "pure quartz crystals" to find
> out whether the cost went up in 2010 after one of the two manufacturers
> in the US was shut down. The people whose magical thinking extends to
> crystals want purity, so all crystals are "pure."
> 
> Help prevent incomplete knowledge.
> 
> Bill Hawkins
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Atkinson
> Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2013 1:43 AM
> 
> The US Chemical Safety Board have released their report into the 2009
> accident at NDK's synthetic crystal growing facility in Belvidere IL <
> http://www.csb.gov/assets/1/19/CSB_CaseStudy_NDK_1107_500PM.pdf > It
> also describes the process.
> 
> Basically a 50ft autoclave failed, killing a member of the public at a
> rest stop 650ft away. Looks like management decisions, probably based on
> cost, overriding engineering advice even following an earlier minor
> incident. The letters from a consulting engineer in the annex make
> interesting reading. It illustrates the importance of those professional
> engineers amongst us notifying and recording any safety issues we
> discover. The facility is still shut down and the insurance company
> won't settle as NDK were told of possible issues.
> 
> Robert G8RPI.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> and follow the instructions there.



More information about the time-nuts mailing list