Hydraulic fluid injury

[Taylortractornut]

I had a line blow on the goose neck of the paddle wheel scraper I run at work. The line was a 1 1/4 in line and thefluid gave me a good welp. a big crapepr was I had been running it about 4 hours hauling dirt and it was good and hot. I had to throw the bowl down to stop it spraying. It was a faliure in the crimp on one of the fittings, it let a 1/4 inch stream out then blew the end off the hose. nothing like being coated in oil on a 90 degree day and having to get blowing sand on you. He have hose covers we had made that boots around this group of lines I have seen some blow through them. The elevator lines that rund off the hydrostativ transmission to run the elevator motor is the one I hate being near when it goes.

 

[shakin]

remembering back from one of my parker training sessions. if you should get exposed to high pressure hydraulic leak when you get to the hospital it is important to tell the er staff that it is a hyd injury. all of the fluid must be removed from the would if any is left and the wound sewn up the body will rot around the wound. this is dangerous stuff even for a superficial would any penetration to the skin by hydraulic fluid not matter how insignificant must by treated by professionals.

 

[psj12]

Some years back a friend of mine was welding on an artillery piece at Aberdeen. The hydraulic system was supposed to be purged of pressure but it wasn't. A small piece of slag burned a pin hole in a line. Without thinking he reached down and put his gloved finger over the leak. I instantly injected his finger. Although there was only a pin hole his finger swelled to three times it size and it had to be removed all the way to the wrist.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

The OSHA limit for air nozzles is 30psi (supersonic air flow to the atmosphere takes less than 20psi). I would say for liquids anything higher than garden hose pressure should be considered potentially hazardous.

 

[JohnDeere4300]

Thanks for showing this J_J,

I've never seen injuries like that before from hydraulic fluid.

But when i worked underground in the coalmines all the equipment was hydraulic, and i remember a hose busting on an electrician, and he got really burned on his hands, neck & face.... But it never looked like these injuries in the pictures that you showed

He stayed in the hospital over a week & came back to work about 2 months later, and is still scared on the places where the fluid hit him.

How come his injury didn't turn out like the pictures ?__

 

[J_J]

I suspect his injuries was caused by hot hyd fluid spraying on him, and not the close up pressure that causes the bursting skin and muscle. Hot hyd fluid can spray probably 10 ft or more. Some of the guys on TBN have been sprayed when a hose burst, but due to distance and pressure, and temp of the fluid, not much damage, other than clean up. Hydraulic fluid in the eyes is not a good thing either.

When my brother was young, he was cleaning parts in a bucket full of, what we think was, gas and kerosene mix, and after about an 30 min of him soaking his hands, he started to hurt, and said his hands felt like they were on fire. He could not touch anything with out hurting. They suspected that the cleaner was absorbed in the skin, and the body reacted. We put lotion on his hands, but they hurt for about a day,

 

[Reg]

Thanks for showing this J_J,

I've never seen injuries like that before from hydraulic fluid.

But when i worked underground in the coalmines all the equipment was hydraulic, and i remember a hose busting on an electrician, and he got really burned on his hands, neck & face.... But it never looked like these injuries in the pictures that you showed

He stayed in the hospital over a week & came back to work about 2 months later, and is still scared on the places where the fluid hit him.

How come his injury didn't turn out like the pictures ?__

My guess is that there are, as the saying goes; "too many variables for outcomes to be predictable".

Exactly HOW a leak develops; as a tear, a sudden burst, a pinhole "jet", etc.
Whether the failure is; the hose, the metal fitting, etc.
The angle of incidence; glancing, direct.
Distance & density; there is probably some inverse square law that gets invoked.
Tissue; calloused hands, neck, face, probably offer different resistance to penetration.
Deflection by clothing; even "street clothing" might help - a bit.

I would expect almost as many different outcomes as incidents.

 

[SkyPup]

I was out working on my old 1985 Massery Ferguson MF-1030 with a Hydrostatic tranny and was bush hogging some woods when all of a sudden a big stream shot out to the side of me about 30-40 feet..

I thought that I had sheared off one of the tire valves and since the tires were 70% full of water it was a water spray from a tire valve leak and was waiting for the tractor to start leaning over....

Luckily I jumped off the other side of the tractor and looked where it was coming from and it was not the tires, I had sheared off a hydraulic connection from the hydraulic pump to the Hydro drive when the pressurized hydraulic fluid enters the tranny.

Couldn't move the tractor and had to shut down the engine, she was dead right where she was until I could order and install a new high pressure line from the filter to the casing.

Just lucky that I was on top of the tractor and the high pressure spray was below and that I did not touch any of it...

 

[JohnDeere4300]

I suspect his injuries was caused by hot hyd fluid spraying on him, and not the close up pressure that causes the bursting skin and muscle. Hot hyd fluid can spray probably 10 ft or more. Some of the guys on TBN have been sprayed when a hose burst, but due to distance and pressure, and temp of the fluid, not much damage, other than clean up. Hydraulic fluid in the eyes is not a good thing either.

When my brother was young, he was cleaning parts in a bucket full of, what we think was, gas and kerosene mix, and after about an 30 min of him soaking his hands, he started to hurt, and said his hands felt like they were on fire. He could not touch anything with out hurting. They suspected that the cleaner was absorbed in the skin, and the body reacted. We put lotion on his hands, but they hurt for about a day,

OK i understand about the different kinds of injuries from the fluid.

I've seen equipment underground get a leak & spray close to 20ft.... In the mines its about 50 deg. & with all the big fans running it can be cool at times, and everyone wore long sleeve shirts or light weight coveralls....that's what saved him from getting burned on his arms, but getting sprayed on his face & neck was worse.

I remember when it happened and the foreman shut down all equipment...We had 3 EMT's in the mine that had 2 sections, and they took him down to the power box where they kept the first-aid kits and a man-trip for emergencies....He had what looked like hives on his face & neck... One EMT said that he had never seen someone get burned like that before underground.

And underground you can't get cleaned up very well if you get sprayed with the fluid....I have seen the "continuous miner" get a leak on the boom & the operator not even know it's leaking & spraying into the "shuttle car" operators face until someone flagged him with their light.... and the fluid in the equipment gets very hot because the equipment stays running 3 shifts 6 days a week.

(You talking about your brother cleaning parts in the fluid.)

I was getting a hair cut & i heard some old timers talking about that... and they said it hurts really bad, and one guy said that his hands turned real red like a bad sunburn.

This thread should remind members of the dangers of "hydraulic fluid"


* I have a question for you J_J,

I have a friend that is a logger & he has his own dozer & truck... I was up his house a couple weeks ago and i saw him doing something that i thought was dangerous, and probably wasn't good for his stile chainsaw bar because its so thin.

When he changes the hydraulic fluid in his equipment he saves the fluid & uses it in his chainsaw bar.

I told him that it was too thin & he could get it in his eyes....But he said that he has been doing that for years


What do you think about that ?____I don't mean to get off topic.

 

[J_J]

All I can say about that, is, some hydraulic fluid is motor oil. That is what we use in the Power-Trac's. It probably serves a purpose other than dumping. It does have contaminants in the fluid, but it is better than no lube.