Widgets are painted and cured with heat from a drier in the paint shop. Three components are required to start a fire in the paint shop and cause major damage: fuel, ignition and oxygen. Oxygen is always present in the atmosphere and thus has a probability of 1.0. Ignition can occur either from a spark due to static electricity (with a probability of 0.01) or from overheating of the drier mechanism (0.05). Fuel is provided by the volatile vapors that can arise from three sources: paint vapors during the drying process (0.9), paint thinner used to thin the paint (0.9), and the solvent used for the clean-up of equipment (probability = 0.3). Property damage from a fire could amount to as much as $100,000. You have three choices of solutions in minimizing the likelihood of a major fire:

1) Spend $50 to move clean-up operations to a different room, which would reduce the probability of having solvent vapors in the paint area to 0.0)

2) Spend $3,000 on a new ventilation system which reduces the probability of having vapor from each of the three fuels to 0.2.

3) Spend $10,000 for a new type of paint and spraying system that doesn't release volatile vapors reducing the probability of paint and paint-thinner vapors to 0.0.

a) Draw a fault tree and recommend the most cost effective solution.

b) Consider the domino theory as applied to this scenario. Name each of the dominoes in the proper order and provide two other possible solutions that would apply to this scenario.

Transcribed Image Text:

Fire Fuel Oxygen Ignifion, Pant, Thinner Solvent Spart Heat