Diving in fluorescent penetrant for special effects (FX)

Once again, a "veteran's" story! But as always (at least, we hope so!) the lesson taken from a TRUE story may be useful to others in similar situations - though we think this one will never occur again !!

On a Friday, ca 4 pm, the end of a week in this company which manufactures parts for aircraft. In the penetrant line area, everything is idle, inspectors are filling in the last forms of the week. A half-hour later, time for the week-end!

A man from an other department, himself with nothing he can begin, come to have a talk with PT people. He looks for a chair, but none is available. He looks at a tank with a wooden-lid. This tank is full of the fluorescent water-washable penetrant used in this company - 800 itres (ca 210 US gal or 176 Imperial gal). This lid would be a very convenient surface to put the buttocks on!

He comes close to the tank, pushes up on his feet and put his hands on the edge of the lid. And a barely credible thing happens: the lid slides, the man loses his balance, the lid falls down ... and the man takes a plunge in ... the penetrant tank!!!

Immediately his colleagues are near the tank, their hands go in the liquid, take the hands of the diver, take him out of the tank!

The "diver" was fortunate enough to have had a good reaction: he did not breathe while immersed in the tank; otherwise he would probably have died within minutes.

Well, now, what to do with this fluorescent, wetted man? Call the M.D. on duty, remove all the clothes. Colleagues pushed him under a shower, hoping that a lot of water would have the same effect as on metallic parts: rinse away the penetrant!

But, you bet, the yellow-green colour stubbornly staid on the skin, on hair!

Within minutes, the penetrant supplier got a phone call - an incredible one indeed. Maybe the first reaction was to think of a joke. But it was obvious that a man had really been entirely covered with one of their penetrants!

Asked what to do in such a circumstance, the supplier answered no one had any idea of what to do: this never happened before! The question was relayed to the parent company in UK; the same disbelief was the first reaction. Then more technical information arose ... but as a guess as to what would happen to the man!

One of the concerns was that hydrocarbons, the basis of the penetrant formula, would enter the blood stream, then invade all the internal organs. Skin is permeable to many kinds of chemicals. Further skin completely covered with "paint" or some non-permeable layer could have the person die: toxins could not be evacuated, the body would be unable to regulate its temperature through sweat, etc.

The answer to this first-ever problem was:
• Every 2 weeks analyse blood thoroughly for hydrocarbons and all derivatives; check liver, kidneys and other organs.
• Every day wash the entire body with soap and water; no detergent, no solvent.
• Replace underwear everyday; replace top- and bottom-sheets several times a week.
• If analysis are good, perform blood analysis once a month.
• Cross your fingers.

Only after 6 months, due to the natural skin-replacement, any trace of fluorescence had disappeared from the body. The quantity of clothes, sheets, underwear polluted with the fluorescent dye and other chemicals was impressive. All to be thrown away.

The man seemed to have had no particular ailment following that experience.

Guess what has been his funniest moment after his dive? In fact, this same Friday, in the evening, as a partner in a rock-band, he had to perform a concert in a nightclub ... under a lot of UV-A sources!!! You imagine he was very successful, as never before!

Penetrant formula used in these old times (end of the '60s, beginning of the '70s) would be today labelled as incredibly harmful, as per our today "standards", "regulations", etc. Nevertheless, this unique experience (unique, as far as we know!) may help today's users understand that, though precautions shall be taken, it is not necessary to ring the alarm bell for every drop of today's formula that they could get on the skin, inadvertently.

In the '60s a UK Company had a motto: "For every surface treatment problem, there is a product xxxxxx" (trademark we do not display).

Engineers and Commercial people in this Company had made a "translation": "With every surface treatment product xxxxxx (trademark we do not display), there is a problem".

This anecdote is there only to remind everyone that problems met in workshops may be due to the suppliers/manufacturers as well as to the users.

Our idea in these documents is NOT to target anyone, but on the contrary to bring to your knowledge some interesting cases which may prevent you to duplicate the same mistakes while performing Penetrant Testing (PT) or Magnetic Testing (MT).

All the ministories you will read are TRUE. We think they will be helpful:
• First as examples of specific technical --or non-technical-- requirements or peculiar problems.
• Second to let you see that the problems do not always come where you think they should come from.
• Third so that users feel free to ask for help from people (the experts) who may know more than they do.