Flanges and other pipe fittings can fail at any time. When such an incident occurs, the results can be serious, often either costing huge amounts of money in repairs and lost productivity, or even potentially seriously harming those around.
Therefore, such fittings are going to need to be changed at certain intervals to ensure safety. But how do you know when that will be, and often should you check your pipes and fittings?
Ultimately, any pipe fitting will have a certain shelf life. Many will suggest how long each should be changed and will be, whether in good condition or not, but many will simply end up left until they eventually fail. The biggest problem many companies face is the fact that such fittings are often hidden away and very hard to access, costing any company a great deal of time and money just to see what state they are in.
As such, with the cost of flanges being so low, it is often far more sensible to simply find out the recommended time to change such fittings and to buy new products at that time. Finding out when pipes were fitted should be easy and then it should take no time at all for you to find out how long the relevant pipe fittings should be left before replacement. The cost and hassle of actually examining the fittings is going to be wasted in many cases and such a process will offer you far more value if you actually replace the fittings at the same time.
For those with no knowledge of how long fittings should be left, or indeed what fittings may actually make their pipes far more safe and far more productive, it is worth speaking to specialist companies who are likely to be able to point you in the right direction and ensure you are as safe as possible as easily as possible.