Ohio State Fair disaster: Cause of ride malfunction revealed

Fox News ^ | August 06, 2017

[Revel]

Most likely this was bad steel to begin with. I think it is often from Recycled steel. Or steel from China.
It is no different from how the steel in really old American cars would last so much longer than the steel in newer cars. The steel is already rotting from the inside out on the day it is made.

[wally_bert]

Rust on my old vehicles is a never ending battle. Anywhere I can eliminate it, I will.

I love Metal Rescue. That stuff works.

Another thing I’ve just tried is soda blasting on some really thin pieces I can’t get replacements for. A sandblaster would eat them alive.

I will have to get a cabinet if I do any more than token cleaning plus a real air compressor. My 14 year old Lowes rig just barely keeps up. The compressor pumps it’s heart out.

Someday I hope to have the capability to sandblast and powdercoat (on a small scale) for myself. I hate having to farm out something I could do for me.

[Paladin2]

There are a plethora of Steel Alloys, manufacturers, “heats” and component manufacturers using the raw material.

Plenty of details to examine.

It’s not so clear on how to inspect carney rides except to throw up one’s hands and add a useful life termination date for a given set of hardware.

[raybbr]

Actually, an 8 ounce ball peen hammer can detect interior corrosion. You tap on the metal and if you get a hollow sound instead of a ping the metal is weakened.

[USMCPOP]

Marginal wall thickness of the square structural tube combined with moisture and internal corrosion over the years. It happens to trailers and vehicles all the time. Toyota had a recall on their small pickup trucks for years due to frame rot and inadequate rustproofing. Some had a buy-back allowance. On others, they actually replaced the frame! My son had one that had a hole in the frame that you could actually put your fist through, and the frame member wasn’t very big.

[alternatives?]

“That’s my wife’s attitude towards the rides at our local district fair. Look at the people running them—they likely assembled them too.”

My wife said she wanted to travel during retirement. I suggested we buy a small carnival then we could travel and make money. She just looked at me.

[aomagrat]

I quit going a few years ago when I had to pay 12 bucks for a hotdog and a coke.

[wally_bert]

If I go, my wife foots the bill. I refuse to enrich that outfit.

[Delta 21]

There are standards that must be met for thickness depending on grade, age, hours, intended use, yadda , yadda. Use an ultrasonic thickness gauge for non destructive testing of the non-corroded metal.

[ReformedBeckite]

I get the impression that the corrosion happen inside the major support beam, probably it was corrosion that nobody could of seen unless they had cut the beam in half and looked. Kind of like all those gas station, motel, interstate support beams that hold up signs etc. Sure those support beams that hold up signs are bigger and has thicker metal, but it makes one wonder what if they are corroding inside those massive beams, and one wonders if maybe there was a big enough hole in the support beam of the ride to get water in it and speed up the erosion process.

This could have major implications on future inspection of fair rides, the making of newer fair rides and just about anything manufactured with hollow beams etc. I bet every time it rain this support beam got water inside it that would speed up the erosion process on bare metal that no body thought about getting painted, or it getting water inside the beam. This accident will probably change a lot of processes in the making of fair rides and upkeep of them, and add new things to inspect if they can even inspect the inside of a beam.

[Delta 21]

A service bulletin from 2007 on THIS issue?

If they had knowledge of this bulletin and did nothing about it........well........thats unfortunate.

[Delta 21]

Paperwork was gun decked. People died.

[Delta 21]

Service bulletin in post #24 gives specific procedure on how non-destructive testing NDT was to be done one the "Afterburner".

"However, the ride is manufactured by KMG, a company based out of The Netherlands that manufactures amusement rides. Through KMG, the ride is called “The Afterburner”, and it’s had structural issues in the past. In 2007, KMG sent a letter to all Afterburner owners informing them that “On recent investigation on one of the Afterburner rides, it was discovered that structural fatigue cracking of the swing arm was developing on Afterburner rides supplied by KMG.”"

[shanover]

To be fair, the proper inspection of this metal would take very expensive equipment that is far beyond eyeballing, to say the least. I never go on the local,traveling fair type rides and I am still suspect of the big established parks.

[Jarhead9297]

Lol

[IncPen]

Whenever I take an amusement park ride, I expect their is a chance I might die. Just like when I walk into the waves of an ocean or when I take a jetliner up into the sky.

You could die.

Life just isn't safe anymore.

[Sequoyah101]

In the case of something like this ANY corrosion is excessive.

If you don’t know what the safety factor is then it is ZERO.

If the corrosion is pitting in nature and the safety factor for corrosion is not specified the safety factor is ZERO.

[Paladin2]

Yep, VERY problematic.

I’ve heard from a participant, principal engineer that the Hoover Dam had a safety factor of 10.

They wanted to be able to build more damns over the years....

[Paladin2]

hollow beams ?

there’s some news/insight.