Designers and maintenance personnel must keep control of the materials used in oxygen systems. Each application must be evaluated to determine the proper level of materials
control. In general, materials procured for use in oxygen sys-tems require a material certification†from the manufacturer.
It is also good practice to verify the manufacturer-supplied information.
Experience has shown that some materials exhibit such manufacturing variability that different batches are not always satisfactory for use. One form of control criteria that may be used is batch lot testing. A batch, or lot, is a collection of material that has been made under the same conditions and at the same time using the same starting materials (ANSI/ASQ Z1.4). In batch lot testing, a sample is drawn from a batch of material and tested to determine conformance with acceptability criteria. The acceptability criteria can be based on the material’s structural integrity and ignition and flammability characteristics. It is recommended that for criti-cal applications, materials should be controlled at the batch lot level to ensure compliance with structural requirements as well as ignition and combustion design criteria.
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