Posted By Alexander Falconer A situation all too familiar with me from my days in the Oil & Gas industry (company manufactured wrought forged butt weld pipe & manifold fittings) Did you ensure that the gasket itself had the capability to withstand the subjected design pressures? Generally, when conducting design pressure testing (at 110% capability) any gasket failures were not required to be reported as the test pressures proved the design of the fitting(s) themselves.

Posted By Ian Waldram I don't understand your problem - is there some penalty to regarding the event as an incident worth recording? If there is, then you need to get the rules changed, as they seem to be inhibiting learning opportunities! If you record the incident, check the relevant risk assessment and find that no additional controls are required, then that reinforces the need for the current controls. I would see it rather like publicising someone protected by PPE - if it's a relatively rare event, then sharing what happened helps protect someone else who might be thinking that the precautions are 'over the top'. In respect of hydraulic vs pneumatic testing - yes there are good practices, including that you NEVER subject part of a system which hasn't been strength tested in some way to a pneumatic test without checking whether a large-scale failure and pressure relase is possible - the pressure itself is less important than the total compression energy. Beyond this general advice, it can be quite complex, so advice from a competent pressure systems engineer would be my suggestion.