The consultant concluded the accident resulted from the vessel’s improper design, fabrication and material selection, determined four vessels were experiencing stress corrosion cracking, and advised against returning any of the facility’s eight vessels into service.
The CSB found that had NDK Crystal ignored a direct warning by a third-party safety auditor called in by its insurance carrier following an uncontrolled leak of hot, caustic material in January 2007 from the lid of another similar pressure vessel. This set in motion a near-inevitable catastrophe.” The manufacturer of the vessels – including the one that exploded years later – recommended annual inspections, but neither NDK nor the state performed the inspections. In doing so, the vessels were incorrectly put into “non-corrosive” service. Because the vessels did not meet requirements of the widely recognized national pressure vessel code, the State of Illinois allowed installation of three of the vessels under a special exemption. Another piece – a vessel fragment weighing over 8,000 pounds - tore through a wall at the facility, skipped across a neighboring parking lot and struck the wall of an automotive supply company where 70 people were working but only one was injured.ĬSB Chairperson Rafael Moure-Eraso said, “Over the years, NDK ignored safety recommendations and warnings that it should regularly inspect the interior walls of the vessels. One piece of steel from the building was blown 650 feet, striking the driver who was walking back to his vehicle. CSB videos may be viewed at or The violent rupture occurred in the Number 2 vessel which was growing synthetic quartz crystals at extremely high pressure and temperature. The CSB also scheduled for release a safety video on the accident entitled “Falling through the Cracks,” which utilizes a computer animation to depict the sequence of events and investigation findings. The report – a CSB Case Study – was unanimously approved by the CSB board board at a public meeting in Rockford, IL.
Chemical Safety Board (CSB) and set for consideration at a public meeting to be held in Rockford, Illinois, today, a few miles from the facility. The findings were released in a draft investigation report from the U.S. Rockford, Illinois, November 14, 2013-An explosion which occurred December 7, 2009, at the NDK Crystal manufacturing company in Belvidere, Illinois, fatally injuring a truck driver at a nearby gas station on the Illinois Tollway, resulted from corrosion in the walls of a pressure vessel, which went uninspected for years.
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