Insurance Forensics II

"CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever" (carsoffortlangley)
11/21/2019 at 13:35 • Filed to: None

Attended destructive testing today. Testing some lengths of cable. This machine can test up to 300,000lbs of strength . I was told it can do more, but isn’t calibrated for that. Some mining companies or oil/gas companies have machines that can do 2,000,000lbs plus.

The carpet is to keep wire shards out of my eyes and face. Safety!

I took a video, but I don’t want to share, so here’s a similar video.

DISCUSSION (18)

Azrek > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
11/21/2019 at 13:44

I love destructive testing. I’ve had the chance to see us blow up concrete in the past to test concussive factors. It was super cool!

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
11/21/2019 at 14:21

This stuff is super interesting!

someassemblyrequired > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
11/21/2019 at 14:43

Better video:

Party starts about 1:15 (loud)

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
11/21/2019 at 14:58

Thanks!

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
11/21/2019 at 15:34

You’re welcome. As a repair/engineering tech, finding failure modes is both the most frustrating and rewarding parts of the job all at once.

Hamtractor > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
11/21/2019 at 16:40

My pops was a fireman and arson investigator for twenty years, and when he retired he went to work for a firm that did fire investigations for insurance companies, subrogation, etc. He had a strong background in explosives/explosions and large-scale commercial fires, so he not only got to work on a bunch of cool high-profile (in the fire community, anyway) incidents, but he also got to work a bunch with UL and NIOSH doing fire and explosion demonstrations and experiments. He didn’t retire from that for another 15 years because every day was interesting, whether it was digging out a burned up house for clues or teaching a class or hiring himself out as an expert witness. People hear “insurance” and immediately get bored, but there’s actually a lot of cool things to do for a living within that field. I’d love to be an adjuster

t0ast > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
11/21/2019 at 17:13

Awesome. I was always jealous of the Materials Science & Engineering students at college for getting to do stuff like this and loading up concrete pillars until they break.

Nick Has an Exocet > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
11/21/2019 at 17:15

Thanks for reminding me that there are people in the world that get paid to break things intentionally. I’m much happier.

Thisismydisplayname > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
11/21/2019 at 20:17

So what was the purpose of your testing today? The wire rope or the other parts of the system? Did a sling break on somebody?

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Thisismydisplayname
11/21/2019 at 20:21

Testing to rule out that the cable snapping in a claim was the fault of the cable

DipodomysDeserti > Hamtractor
11/21/2019 at 20:26

Just finished up units in explosives and chemical weapons in my graduate program this week. Watching lectures on the effects of mustard gas while on an international flight gets you some looks...

As for the insurance aspect, my toxicology professor just got a grant for a research project which is investigating insurance tables for algal farms. Might have to get my mitts into that.

Thisismydisplayname > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
11/21/2019 at 20:30

Gotcha. But are you taking a sample of the actual cable, or a similar lot of cable?

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Thisismydisplayname
11/21/2019 at 20:56

Both

TheD0k_2many toys 2little time > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
11/21/2019 at 22:19

Hypothetically NASA has some rigs that do much more than that. Both pushing and pulling. Not i i would know...

Hamtractor > DipodomysDeserti
11/22/2019 at 07:51

When I left the fire department, I went to work as an emergency operations coordinator for an environmental emergency response outfit, mostly running heavy equipment removing contaminated soils after truck crashes, train derailments, etc. But when we were slow, we kept the lights on by doing asbestos abatement and demolition. So my dad’s firm used us a lot to do “surgical demo” with a trackhoe using a thumb grappler. I could take a building that was too damaged to enter for the arson guys to investigate and dismantle it stick by stick with that 45,000 pound machine. And then, when the investigation was complete, the insurance company usually just had us do the whole demo job since we were already on-site. I LOVE wrecking shit.

Thisismydisplayname > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
11/22/2019 at 10:26

That makes sense. Did they find the actual sample held up to similar stresses as the control sample?

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Thisismydisplayname
11/22/2019 at 10:28

We were simply checking to ensure that the cable met or exceeded the mill cert. It did wonderfully.

The control cable was actually off the same spool as the loss cable.

DipodomysDeserti > Hamtractor
11/22/2019 at 15:03

That sounds like an awesome job. Next semester I’ll be doing a deconstruction unit with my elementary STEM class where we just tear shit apart. Gonna start with a busted moto engine I have.

Did you work in municipal fore or wildlands? Just hung out with some hotshots at my SIL’s wedding last weekend.