|
High pressure gas cylinders are in use in
virtually every industry and each year there are failures of some of
these cylinders -- most recently the apparent failure of an oxygen
cylinder aboard a Quantas Airlines passenger jet. Explosive
failure of cylinders causes property
damage, personnel injury and even death. In virtually every case the
cause of the explosion has been determined by accident investigation to have
been visually apparent if only a trained inspector had looked at the
cylinder. PSI is the only
federally recognized source of this training. Since its founding in 1982 by Bill High, Professional Scuba
Inspectors, Inc. has been the leader in high pressure cylinder
safety through proper visual inspection techniques. It has
become the recognized source for professional training in the
visual inspection of cylinders and for HAZMAT training for
cylinder handlers and fill station operators. The nearly 21,000 inspectors trained since then have removed tens of thousands of
potentially lethal cylinders from service. And our efforts
have been well rewarded by seeing the number of cylinder failure
in the United States drop dramatically from an average of about
a dozen each year to the very low single digits of today. PSI training works and
we are proud of our accomplishments.
 While PSI began by focusing on SCUBA cylinders it soon became
apparent that they were in reality becoming the authority for visual
inspection standards for all high pressure gas cylinders
including SCBA, medical service and industrial service
cylinders. As such PSI is experiencing over half of its
training activities outside of the traditional SCUBA
marketplace. Fire Departments, Police Departments, the
Military Services, and a wide range of commercial businesses
routinely provide PSI training to their personnel. So much
so that PSI has also incorporated as Professional
Cylinder Inspectors (PCI) with an appropriate additional logo.
The visual inspection of high pressure cylinders is
critical to high pressure cylinder safety. The Federal
Government (DOT & OSHA) requires visual inspections for all high
pressure cylinders -- including SCBA cylinders. SCUBA cylinders
must be visually inspected at least yearly while SCBA cylinders
have inspection intervals prescribed by both the manufacturer
and the Federal Government. OSHA and DOT
further require that all employees using, handling or filling
such cylinders MUST have appropriate HAZMAT and other function
specific training. This training must be administered
within within 90 days of hiring and every 3
years thereafter -- and must be documented in individual
training records.
No other source of training even comes
close to the professional training you will get from PSI. PSI training is recognized Worldwide as the highest
standard of training by, among others: the US Departments of
Transportation, Treasury, Interior, Commerce, and Defense; by
cylinder manufacturers such as Luxfer, Pressed Steel Tank,
Catalina, Interspiro, and Scott Aviation; by the National Safety
Council: by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), by the Compressed Gas Association; by NATO; by SCUBA training
agencies such as NAUI and PADI; by numerous
educational institutions, police and fire departments, and
hydrostatic retest facilities around the United States; and by
the US court system as meeting the definition of “has been
trained”.
PSI neither invents nor develops inspection
standards or high pressure cylinder policies. Rather, PSI training
and policies are derived directly from the US Code of Federal
Regulations, Transport Canada Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG)
regulations, the Compressed Gas Association, and the manufacturers.
PSI strives only to be the "honest broker".
If you are not providing yourself and
your personnel PSI training in the safe
handling and inspection of high pressure cylinders, you
are taking unnecessary risks. Contact
Dale Fox or
PSI
immediately to
provide your personnel the quality and professional training you
require.
This site and the PSI web site are your
best sources for FACTUAL information. There is a great
deal of misinformation on cylinders (most recently that all 6351
cylinders are unsafe) being spread by people and organizations
whose intentions are better based than their knowledge. We
want to counter that with plain truth. A synopsis of some
of the more egregious examples can be found on my
Cylinder Fact and
Fiction page.
|
