Title 49

SECTION 178.58

178.58 Specification 4DA welded steel cylinders for aircraft use.

§ 178.58 Specification 4DA welded steel cylinders for aircraft use.

(a) Type, size, and service pressure. A DOT 4DA is a welded steel sphere (two seamless hemispheres) or a circumferentially welded cylinder (two seamless drawn shells) with a water capacity not over 100 pounds and a service pressure of at least 500 but not over 900 psig.

(b) Steel. Open-hearth or electric steel of uniform quality must be used. A heat of steel made under table 1 in this paragraph (b), check chemical analysis of which is slightly out of the specified range, is acceptable, if satisfactory in all other respects, provided the tolerances shown in table 2 in this paragraph (b) are not exceeded except as approved by the Associate Administrator. The following chemical analyses are authorized:

(c) Identification of material. Materials must be identified by any suitable method except that plates and billets for hot-drawn containers must be marked with the heat number.

(d) Manufacture. Cylinders must be manufactured in accordance with the following requirements:

(1) By best appliances and methods. No defect is acceptable that is likely to weaken the finished container appreciably. A reasonably smooth and uniform surface finish is required. No abrupt change in wall thickness is permitted. Welding procedures and operators must be qualified in accordance with CGA Pamphlet C-3 (IBR, see § 171.7 of this subchapter).

(2) All seams of the sphere or cylinders must be fusion welded. Seams must be of the butt or joggle butt type and means must be provided for accomplishing complete penetration of the joint.

(e) Welding. Attachments to the container are authorized by fusion welding provided that such attachments are made of weldable steel, the carbon content of which may not exceed 0.25 percent except in the case of 4130 steel.

(f) Wall thickness. The minimum wall thickness must be such that the wall stress at the minimum specified test pressure may not exceed 67 percent of the minimum tensile strength of the steel as determined from the physical and burst tests required and may not be over 70,000 p.s.i. For any diameter container, the minimum wall thickness is 0.040 inch. Calculations must be made by the formulas in (f)(1) or (f)(2) of this section:

(1) Calculation for a sphere must be made by the following formula:

S = PD / 4tE Where: S = wall stress in pounds psi; P = test pressure prescribed for water jacket test, i.e., at least 2 times service pressure, in psig; D = outside diameter in inches; t = minimum wall thickness in inches; E = 0.85 (provides 85 percent weld efficiency factor which must be applied in the girth weld area and heat affected zones which zone must extend a distance of 6 times wall thickness from center line of weld); E = 1.0 (for all other areas).

(2) Calculation for a cylinder must be made by the following formula:

S = [P(1.3D 2 + 0.4d 2)] / (D 2 − d 2) Where: S = wall stress in pounds psi; P = test pressure prescribed for water jacket test, i.e., at least 2 times service pressure, in psig; D = outside diameter in inches; d = inside diameter in inches.

(g) Heat treatment. The completed containers must be uniformly and properly heat-treated prior to tests. Heat-treatment of containers of the authorized analysis must be as follows:

(1) All containers must be quenched by oil, or other suitable medium except as provided in paragraph (g)(4) of this section.

(2) The steel temperature on quenching must be that recommended for the steel analysis, but may not exceed 1,750 °F.

(3) The steel must be tempered at the temperature most suitable for the analysis except that in no case shall the tempering temperature be less than 1,000 °F.

(4) The steel may be normalized at a temperature of 1,650 °F instead of being quenched, and containers so normalized need not be tempered.

(5) All cylinders, if water quenched or quenched with a liquid producing a cooling rate in excess of 80 percent of the cooling rate of water, must be inspected by the magnetic particle or dye penetrant method to detect the presence of quenching cracks. Any cylinder found to have a quench crack must be rejected and may not be requalified.

(h) Openings in container. Openings in the container must comply with the following requirements:

(1) Each opening in the container must be provided with a fitting, boss, or pad of weldable steel securely attached to the container by fusion welding.

(2) Attachments to a fitting, boss, or pad must be adequate to prevent leakage. Threads must comply with the following:

(i) Threads must be clean cut, even, without checks, and tapped to gauge.

(ii) Taper threads to be of length not less than as specified for American Standard taper pipe threads.

(iii) Straight threads, having at least 4 engaged threads, to have tight fit and calculated shear strength at least 10 times the test pressure of the container; gaskets required, adequate to prevent leakage.

(i) Pressure testing. Each cylinder must successfully withstand a pressure test as follows:

(1) The test must be by water-jacket or direct expansion method as prescribed in CGA C-1 (IBR; see § 171.7 of this subchapter). The testing equipment must be calibrated as prescribed in CGA C-1. All testing equipment and pressure indicating devices must be accurate within the parameters defined in CGA C-1.

(2) Each cylinder must be tested to a minimum of two (2) times service pressure.

(3) The minimum test pressure must be maintained at least 30 seconds and sufficiently longer to ensure complete expansion. Any internal pressure applied after heat-treatment and prior to the official test may not exceed 90 percent of the test pressure. If, due to failure of the test apparatus or operator error, the test pressure cannot be maintained, the test may be repeated in accordance with CGA C-1, section 5.7.2.

(4) Permanent volumetric expansion may not exceed 10 percent of the total volumetric expansion at test pressure.

(j) Burst test. One container taken at random out of 200 or less must be hydrostatically tested to destruction. The rupture pressure must be included as part of the inspector's report.

(k) Flattening test. Spheres and cylinders must be subjected to a flattening test as follows:

(1) Flattening test for spheres. One sphere taken at random out of each lot of 200 or less must be subjected to a flattening test as follows:

(i) The test must be performed after the hydrostatic test.

(ii) The test must be at the weld between the parallel steel plates on a press with a welded seam, at right angles to the plates. Any projecting appurtenances may be cut off (by mechanical means only) prior to crushing.

(2) Flattening test for cylinders. One cylinder taken at random out of each lot of 200 or less, must be subjected to a flattening test as follows:

(i) The test must be performed after the hydrostatic test.

(ii) The test cylinder must be placed between wedge-shaped knife edges having a 60° angle, rounded to a 1/2-inch radius.

(l) Radiographic inspection. Radiographic examinations is required on all welded joints which are subjected to internal pressure, except that at the discretion of the disinterested inspector, openings less than 25 percent of the sphere diameter need not be subjected to radiographic inspection. Evidence of any defects likely to seriously weaken the container must be cause for rejection.

(m) Physical test and specimens for spheres and cylinders. Spheres and cylinders must be subjected to a physical test as follows:

(1) A physical test for a sphere is required on 2 specimens cut from a flat representative sample plate of the same heat taken at random from the steel used to produce the sphere. This flat steel from which the 2 specimens are to be cut must receive the same heat-treatment as the spheres themselves. Sample plates to be taken for each lot of 200 or less spheres.

(2) Specimens for spheres have a gauge length of 2 inches with a width not over 1 1/2 inches, or a gauge length at least 24 times thickness with a width not over 6 times thickness is authorized when wall of sphere is not over 3/16 inch thick.

(3) A physical test for cylinders is required on 2 specimens cut from 1 cylinder taken at random out of each lot of 200 or less.

(4) Specimens for cylinder must conform to the following:

(i) A gauge length of 8 inches with a width not over 1 1/2 inches, a gauge length of 2 inches with a width not over 1 1/2 inches, a gauge length at least 24 times thickness with a width not over 6 times thickness is authorized when a cylinder wall is not over 3/16 inch thick.

(ii) The specimen, exclusive of grip ends, may not be flattened. Grip ends may be flattened to within 1 inch of each end of the reduced section.

(iii) Heating of a specimen for any purpose is not authorized.

(5) The yield strength in tension must be the stress corresponding to a permanent strain of 0.2 percent of the gauge length. The following conditions apply:

(i) The yield strength must be determined by either the “offset” method or the “extension under load” method as prescribed in ASTM E 8 (IBR, see § 171.7 of this subchapter).

(ii) In using the “extension under load” method, the total strain (or “extension under load”) corresponding to the stress at which the 0.2 percent permanent strain occurs may be determined with sufficient accuracy by calculating the elastic extension of the gauge length under appropriate load and adding thereto 0.2 percent of the gauge length. Elastic extension calculations must be based on an elastic modulus of 30,000,000. In the event of controversy, the entire stress-strain diagram must be plotted and the yield strength determined from the 0.2 percent offset.

(iii) For the purpose of strain measurement, the initial strain must be set while the specimen is under a stress of 12,000 psi and the strain indicator reading being set at the calculated corresponding strain.

(iv) Cross-head speed of the testing machine may not exceed 1/8 inch per minute during yield strength determination.

(n) Acceptable results for physical, flattening, and burst tests. The following are acceptable results of the physical, flattening and burst test:

(1) Elongation must be at least 20 percent for a 2-inch gauge length or 10 percent in other cases.

(2) Flattening is required to 50 percent of the original outside diameter without cracking.

(3) Burst pressure must be at least 3 times service pressure.

(o) Rejected containers. Reheat-treatment of rejected cylinders is authorized. Subsequent thereto, containers must pass all prescribed tests to be acceptable. Repair of welded seams by welding prior to reheat-treatment is authorized.

(p) Marking. Markings on each container must be stamped plainly and permanently on a permanent attachment or on a metal nameplate permanently secured to the container by means other than soft solder.

[Amdt. 178-114, 61 FR 25942, May 23, 1996, as amended at 66 FR 45386, 45388, Aug. 28, 2001; 67 FR 51654, Aug. 8, 2002; 67 FR 61015, Sept. 27, 2002; 68 FR 75748, Dec. 31, 2003; 85 FR 85427, Dec. 28, 2020]

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