Tom Veatch wrote in
:


And I doubt that you will hear of one caused by rust through. Failure
of a pressure relief valve along with simultaneous failure of a
pressure shut off valve could cause overpressurization to the point of
catastrophic failure in a tank in good condition. Rust through will
weaken a tank wall to the point that pinhole leaks will develop at the
weakest points. Those pinholes could grow due to the escaping airflow,
but in doing so, would act as a pressure relief valve reducing the
tank pressure. Catastrophic, shrapnel producing tank failure due to
rust through is a very low probability occurrence.

My opinion, unsupported by any indepth analysis, is that being brained
by a meteorite is about as likely as being injured by a rust through
failure of a shop compressor tank.

And no, I'm not saying rust through failures don't occur and people
have been hit by meteorites. I'm sure someone's second cousin thrice
removed has a neighbor who knew someone who'd heard of about a
pressure tank exploding due to rust through..

Water would tend to collect in the bottom of the tank first, and that's
where the rust would occur, right? So by the time the bottom of the tank
has rusted out, the sides and top of the tank would still be in good
shape. Should the right conditions occur, I think it more likely a
compressor tank act as a rocket and not a bomb.

Puckdropper
--
"The potential difference between the top and bottom of a tree is the
reason why all trees have to be grounded..." -- Bored Borg on
rec.woodworking

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm