why does my copper pipe get pin size hole in it?
Besides the quick bottle pressure check of the guage to make sure there is pressure in the bottle, many types of rechargeable fire extinguishers are hydrostatically tested to verify the mechanical integrity of the bottle. The fire extinguisher contents are removed and the bottle is immersed in a tank to measure its displacement (volume) and filled with high pressure water above the working pressure. The bottle should expand within a certain range. Too much expansion and bottle metal may be yielding from fatigue, too little, and it may be work hardening from pressure cycling and may experience brittle failure.
I can think of two problems that space travelers have faced just in the last 10 years alone! There was the fire on board the Mir space station with American astronaut Jerry Linenger aboard. He and the four other cosmonauts spent nearly half an hour trying to put out the fire, which came very close to burning through the hull. And, just a bit over four months later, an unmanned cargo ship collided with the Mir, which caused decompression in its Spektr modulethe modular design of the space station was credited with saving the astronauts' lives. Imagine bracing for impactthen feeling your ears pop! Scary! When one of the crew was asked how he felt, Michael Foale, the American on board said, We're alive, thank God!
