PSA 10.4 — Failure Case Studies: What Actually Breaks, and Why It Is Almost Never the Code Stress
Late afternoon, Saturday 1 June 1974, Nypro (UK) Ltd, Flixborough. Six reactors in series oxidise cyclohexane at about 155 °C and 8.8 bar. Reactor 5 has been removed after cracking, and a temporary 20-inch dogleg bypass now joins reactors 4 and 6 through the 28-inch bellows that were already there. The reactors step down in height, so the bypass has a jog in it. It rests on scaffolding. It was designed with a chalk sketch on the workshop floor: no drawing, no calculation, no reference to the bellows manufacturer's guidance, and no pressure test beyond a pneumatic leak check at…
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