DOT Inspection Violation Trends

American Cylinder and Safety had a informative discussion with one of the D.O.T.s compliance inspectors.  Part of this discussion regarded the most common violations that they see when conducting an unannounced inspection.  All of these items are easily correctible, but if you fail to do them, you risk violations and fines. 

Here are the most common violations they see:

-              During calibrations of systems, not holding pressure for 30 seconds at each calibration point

-              If facilities have transducers on their machines, not calibrating the transducers every 6 months as required.

-              If retesting cylinders due to a machine or operator malfunction (the only times a cylinder may be retested), not increasing the pressure 10% or 100 psi, whichever is less, on the second test.

-              Incomplete test records utilizing ditto marks on areas that are mandated being completed.

-              When testing fire extinguishers, companies using the serial # printed on the label and not the serial number stamped on the cylinder

-              Failure to maintain,  or incomplete records for Eddy Current Testing of 6351-T6  alloy cylinders

-              Marking cylinders prior to testing

-              Not documenting employee training, and failure to complete recurrent training every 3 years.

All of these are easily correctible issues if you pay attention to recordkeeping. By paying attention to the details, you can save yourself and your company thousands of dollars in fine!