About PSI - PCI
Phillip Rexinger
High pressure gas cylinders are in use in virtually every industry and each year there are failures of some of these cylinders -- most recently the apparent failure of an oxygen cylinder aboard a Quantas Airlines passenger jet. Explosive failure of cylinders causes property damage, personnel injury and even death. In virtually every case the cause of the explosion has been determined by accident investigation to have been visually apparent if only a trained inspector had looked at the cylinder. PSI-PCI is the only federally recognized source of this training. Since its founding in 1982 by Bill High, Professional Scuba Inspectors, Inc. has been the leader in high pressure cylinder safety through proper visual inspection techniques. It has become the recognized source for professional training in the visual inspection of cylinders and for HAZMAT training for cylinder handlers and fill station operators. The nearly 21,000 inspectors trained since then have removed tens of thousands of potentially lethal cylinders from service. And our efforts have been well rewarded by seeing the number of cylinder failure in the United States drop dramatically from an average of about a dozen each year to the very low single digits of today. PSI-PCI training works and we are proud of our accomplishments.
While PSI began by focusing on SCUBA cylinders it soon became apparent that they were in reality becoming the authority for visual inspection standards for all high pressure gas cylinders including SCBA, medical service and industrial service cylinders. As such PSI-PCI is experiencing over half of its training activities outside of the traditional SCUBA marketplace. Fire Departments, Police Departments, the Military Services, and a wide range of commercial businesses routinely provide PSI-PCI training to their personnel. So much so that PSI has also incorporated as Professional Cylinder Inspectors (PCI) with an appropriate additional logo.
The visual inspection of high pressure cylinders is critical to high pressure cylinder safety. The Federal Government (DOT & OSHA) requires visual inspections for all high pressure cylinders -- including SCBA cylinders. SCUBA cylinders must be visually inspected at least yearly while SCBA cylinders have inspection intervals prescribed by both the manufacturer and the Federal Government. OSHA and DOT further require that all employees using, handling or filling such cylinders MUST have appropriate HAZMAT and other function specific training. This training must be administered within within 90 days of hiring and every 3 years thereafter -- and must be documented in individual training records.
No other source of training even comes close to the professional training you will get from PSI-PCI. PSI-PCI training is recognized Worldwide as the highest standard of training by, among others: the US Departments of Transportation, Treasury, Interior, Commerce, and Defense; by cylinder manufacturers such as Luxfer, Pressed Steel Tank, Catalina, Interspiro, and Scott Aviation; by the National Safety Council: by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), by the Compressed Gas Association; by NATO; by SCUBA training agencies such as NAUI and PADI; by numerous educational institutions, police and fire departments, and hydrostatic retest facilities around the United States; and by the US court system as meeting the definition of “has been trained”.
PSI-PCI neither invents nor develops inspection standards or high pressure cylinder policies. Rather, PSI-PCI training and policies are derived directly from the US Code of Federal Regulations, Transport Canada Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG) regulations, the Compressed Gas Association, and the manufacturers. PSI-PCI strives only to be the "honest broker".
If you are not providing yourself and your personnel PSI-PCI training in the safe handling and inspection of high pressure cylinders, you are taking unnecessary risks. Contact Phillip Rexinger immediately to provide your personnel the quality and professional training you require.
This site and the PSI-PCI web site are your best sources for FACTUAL information. There is a great deal of misinformation on cylinders (most recently that all 6351 cylinders are unsafe) being spread by people and organizations whose intentions are better based than their knowledge. We want to counter that with plain truth. A synopis of some of the more egregious examples can be found on my Cylinder Fact and Fiction page.