Saving Money By Altering Fittings Can Be Costly

A customer’s truck pulled up to the hose shop and the shop leader went over to it to see what he needed. After a short conversation with the chemical plant driver, the shop leader motioned for another employee to come over. The shop leader explained that the customer’s hose had only been in service for a week and had gotten run over by a tanker truck. The hose was damaged, and it needed to be replaced, although the fittings were basically new, and the company had paid good money for them. He then told the employee to cut the fittings out of the hose, get the same style hose from stock, and put the customer’s existing fittings in the new hose. The shop leader instructed the employee to do it quickly, since the driver was going to wait. Cutting fittings out of a hose was something the employee had never done before so he asked his boss how to go about it. His boss replied, “Take that air grinder, cut the bands off, then cut up and down the hose where the fitting is until it starts to open up, then pull the fitting out.” As soon as the air grinder touched the hose, smoke and dirt went everywhere. The smoke got so bad after a while that he couldn’t see where he was cutting. He kept going up and down the hose like he was told, and occasionally sparks would fly along with the smoke and dirt. After a few minutes, the hose opened, and the fitting fell to the floor. He picked up the fitting and noticed grinding marks on the shank that were deep and sharp on the end. He went to ask his boss about this, but before he could say anything he was told in no uncertain terms to finish the job—now. A few days later, the hose shop received a call from the chemical plant telling them the new hose assembly was leaking through the cover near one of the fittings; the leak sent thousands of dollars of chemicals down the storm drain. Because of the type of chemical, the leak could potentially lead to many thousands of dollars in EPA fines. It was determined that the cause of the spill was that the fitting had cut through the plastic tube in the hose.

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