【Haichuan’s Best Practices】Strengthening blind plate management to reduce risks associated with maintenance, repair, and start-up/stop-up operations

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“To strictly implement the requirements for blind plate management and enforce the energy isolation system, we organized personnel to conduct a thorough inspection of 412 blind plates in the hydrogenation complex and replace their nameplates. This ensured that information regarding the dimensions of each blind plate, the medium flowing through the pipelines, their installation locations, and the responsible persons was recorded in a systematic manner, thereby providing the necessary hardware support for standardizing the management of blind plate installation and removal operations. ”On March 3, Yang Xin, an equipment technician at the hydrogenation unit of the Second Oil Plant of Fushun Petrochemical Company, said this while organizing the records related to blind plate management. 　　Yang Xin explained that the workshop organized its staff to study the regulations regarding the blind plate management system, ensuring that everyone was aware of them, took the lead in complying with them, and enforced them strictly. By learning industry standard specifications, typical accident cases, and management system requirements, employees have improved their ability to identify and solve problems. On this basis, the workshop has intensified efforts to address potential hazards and promoted systematic and detailed management of blind plates through digitalization. The workshop technicians prepare a ledger of blind plates in advance, including the dimensions of each blind plate, the medium flowing through the pipeline, the location where it is installed, and the person responsible for it. This creates a management ledger for blind plates, which helps to ensure proper management of the process of installing and removing such blind plates. Through this initiative, the workshop effectively addressed issues such as irregular hanging of blind plate tags, incomplete record-keeping information, and unclear label content, thereby reducing the risks associated with inspection, maintenance, as well as startup and shutdown operations. 　　To establish a long-term mechanism for blind plate management, this workshop has formed a leadership team responsible for such management and energy isolation, and has carried out specialized initiatives to improve the standards of blind plate management. These efforts are aimed at addressing the prominent issues that arise during the implementation of management systems, thereby preventing safety accidents caused by inadequate blind plate management. Depending on the properties, temperature, pressure of the medium inside the pipes, as well as the diameter of the flange sealing surfaces, appropriate materials, strength levels, diameters, and gaskets that meet design and manufacturing requirements are selected to ensure the safety of blind plate installation and removal operations.