Ever have a tank split while filling

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88turbocoupe

88turbocoupe

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Jul 14, 2024
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Was filling my Hatsan 1.6l
Buddy tank and right around 3800-4000 psi I heard a weird aluminum tin can sound
I looked at my tank and noticed the carbon fiber separating
Shut the comp down and immediately opened the valve to dump the tank
This is what I found

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coastal drifter said:
trust me I understand, that's why I said its difficult. Rebrand is the name of the game. Compressors too!
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They're even more egregious on this. 750 for a $169 single cylinder. They make a "spritech" color it brown, turn it vertical, align the gauges, buttons and bleed valve vertically... voila "Benjamin discovery" $750
 
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JimD said:
I do not believe I've seen a report like this before. As was suggested, the age and manufacturer of the tank would be useful information. Also if there was any visible damage prior to the event (there appears to be none). Did it seem to be leaking when you shut it down? I'm not suggesting it is usable, just curious if the liner failed first and air was gushing out.

Carbon fiber tanks are really thin aluminum tanks that are covered with carbon fiber. The limited test data I have seen shows large mechanical margins in the carbon fiber. My guess is this tank was built with a weak spot in the carbon fiber where the failure occurred. Perhaps too much resin and not enough fiber. Especially if the liner did not fail first. If the liner failed first, that could damage the carbon fiber. You would presumably know the liner failed because air would be rushing out - the carbon fiber is not expected to be able to stop a leak.

The good thing is this reinforces the possibility that when tanks like this fail it is not a big "explosion" but a more controlled leak event where injury is much less likely. I worry more about aluminum air chambers where there is no overwrap to contain fragments if they fail.
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It's really cool how they make the CF tanks, we use to make CF centrifuge rotor buckets where I worked. It's all automated equipment and one CF strand and epoxy just continuously wrapped around the rotating part.
Ricklin said:
I'm darned certain that the posters tongue was firmly in their cheek with that suggestion of Flex seal. :) While I am careful handling my old expired SCBA bottle if these bottles failed violently, we would be hearing about the failures. I'm new here and this is the first structural bottle failure I've heard of. I used the arm section of an old survival suit for my bottle, it's snug as a bug in a rug. The thick Neoprene stretches a bit and provides excellent protection for bumps and bruises.
China can and does provide very high quality products, they also produce stuff slightly better than garbage and often from the same factory. My DJI drone is among the highest quality products I have encountered, one important point? It was NOT CHEAP. We see the worst on Ebay Amazon Etc. all about the price.
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Look at the label it says USA. I'd be in contact with the MFG. ASAP.
 
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$p00kygH0ST said:
The thickness of the aluminum liner in those tanks is thinner to save weight, the Aramid or carbon fiber wrap is to supplement the reduced hull thickness sacrifice for weight saving measures. 6063 and 7075 aluminum can and do routinely hold these pressures.
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Yep, a typical 80 cubic ft aluminum scuba tank has a wall thickness of .562” to .625”, and is 3,000psi fill pressure. High pressure (3,300psi) aluminum scuba tanks are even thicker. I’ve cut many 3,000psi scuba tanks to make into lamps and know the wall thickness because I measured them.
 
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rcs9250 said:
Yep, a typical 80 cubic ft aluminum scuba tank has a wall thickness of .562” to .625”, and is 3,000psi fill pressure. High pressure (3,300psi) aluminum scuba tanks are even thicker. I’ve cut many 3,000psi scuba tanks to make into lamps and know the wall thickness because I measured them.
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I was thinking smaller. I do realize that to meet the wall requirements for 6063 especially a Scuba sized bottle would be unwieldily heavy.
But I've seen 6063 and 7075 tubes and bottles that can take 250 and 300bar. I have an old FX aluminum bottle right now on my dreamline, 250bar, hydrod at 340bar less than .06% permanent expansion
 
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JimD said:
Perhaps too much resin and not enough fiber. Especially if the liner did not fail first. If the liner failed first, that could damage the carbon fiber. You would presumably know the liner failed because air would be rushing out - the carbon fiber is not expected to be able to stop a leak.
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I would have guessed the reverse -- maybe too little resin and the carbon fiber in a small spot was not under tension, allowing that spot to flex after a little resin lost its bond.
 
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delooper said:
I would have guessed the reverse -- maybe too little resin and the carbon fiber in a small spot was not under tension, allowing that spot to flex after a little resin lost its bond.
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Conjecture. You're just running cover for the real culprit. Tank gnomes.
 
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TMH said:
Gosh, I haven't thought about that stuff for years! There was always something really weird about that stuff.
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Heh, worked fine on radiators back in the old days, not sure I'd try it on the newer ones but if one must to get you through a short period then live dangerously. Somewhere up in my brain cell is what the stuff was they put in it to plug the hole. I want to say coconut fibers.
 
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delooper said:
I would have guessed the reverse -- maybe too little resin and the carbon fiber in a small spot was not under tension, allowing that spot to flex after a little resin lost its bond.
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Lost its bond when it grew a pimple in the aluminum
Could clearly see the dimple with my scope
Had something simular happen to my nitrous 20lb bottle except that split and dumped the entire nitrous bottle in my 24 ft trailer
 
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Heck that sounds like a party! I'll guess your N20 was for the car and mixed with oil of Mustard to prevent abuse of same.
N20 is in liquid phase in the cylinder, as you have learned the hard way, they are sensitive to heat especially. One of my dentist friends had a portable N20 unit in his car, returning from a seminar where he taught N20 analgesia. Burst disc let go while he was driving home. He got the VW pulled over and aired out his car.
 
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HogKiller said:
Heh, worked fine on radiators back in the old days, not sure I'd try it on the newer ones but if one must to get you through a short period then live dangerously. Somewhere up in my brain cell is what the stuff was they put in it to plug the hole. I want to say coconut fibers.
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black pepper
 
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