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A boiler is a closed vessel designed to heat water or other fluids to generate steam or hot water. The boiler produces steam or hot water for heating, industrial processes, or power generation. Boilers are crucial components in various industries and residential setups. They provide an efficient way to transfer heat. Boilers can fail for various reasons, and understanding these potential issues is crucial for proper maintenance and troubleshooting. Some common reasons for boiler failures include corrosion, scale buildup, overpressure, lack of water flow, burner Issues, and poor installation and maintenance.

Regular inspections, maintenance, and adherence to safety guidelines are essential to prevent boiler failures. Qualified professionals need to perform routine checks on boilers. It is important to promptly address any identified issues to ensure safe and efficient operation.

Boiler Failure
  People

•    Fatigue
•    Inadequate consequence
•    Inexperience operator

Machine parts

•   Safety valve leakage
•    Furnace tube explosion
•    Excessive wear of feed check valves
•    Blow off cock/ stop valve fail to open/ close
•    Jamming of gearbox
•    Worn pump impeller

Material

•    Foreign/ abrasive particles like dust

   Method

•    Abnormal flameout
•    Inadequate operational procedure
•    Poor maintenance planning
•    Inadequate system standard

  Measurement

•   Lack of water
•   Boiler full of water
•   Improper calibration of water level gauges
•   Gage capability study has never been performed

 Environment

•    High moisture content
•    Very high/ low pressure
•    High dust level exceeding acceptable ranges

This fishbone serves as a typical example of a visual problem analysis. The Ishikawa diagram contains the main reasons for the failure of furnaces or steam boilers.

Who should use the Boiler Failure template?

• Anyone who wants to know the reasons for steam boiler failure.

Why use this template?

• The template shares knowledge of the factors responsible for a malfunctioning steam boiler or heater.
• People use boilers in both residential and industrial areas. Proper maintenance of any device requires basic technical knowledge. Taking simple preventive measures can help us avoid major breakdowns.
• Anyone can modify the structure or extend the template in the smartQED environment while investigating the problem.
• Draft or redesign your templates for problem and incident analysis in smartQED.

Curated from community experience and public sources:

• https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Ishikawa-diagram-for-the-root-cause-failure-analysis-of-a-steam-boiler-failure-Edraw_fig6_319397389
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/industrial-steam-boiler-common-malfunctions-reasons-solutions-yu/