This is a famous example from when they didn’t have alarms. The don’t just happily wobble across the room.
The safety shielding in the unit did not contain all the metal fragments. The half-inch thick sliding steel door on top of the unit buckled allowing fragments, including the steel rotor top, to escape (Image 3). Fragments ruined a nearby refrigerator and an ultra-cold freezer in addition to making holes in the walls and ceiling. The unit itself was propelled sideways and damaged cabinets and shelving that contained over a hundred containers of chemicals.
I forget that there are large centrifuges (somebody posted about Stuxnet further down).
Or, more accurately, I’m more familiar with the small ones (ThermoFisher calls them “Mini” and “Micro” centrifuges) for ~0.5mL samples and I had a hard time thinking that those would blow out a room. But the same link (ThermFisher) that I looked at to find the names also specifies 17,000g and 21,000g models which is just… fucking insane. I knew they spun fast, I didn’t know they spun 21,000g’s fast. Learn something new every day.
A shock wave from the accident shattered all four windows in the room. The shock wave also destroyed the control system for an incubator and shook an interior wall causing shelving on the wall to collapse.
https://ehrs.upenn.edu/health-safety/lab-safety/safety-alerts/ultracentrifuge-explosion-damages-laboratory
This is a famous example from when they didn’t have alarms. The don’t just happily wobble across the room.
I forget that there are large centrifuges (somebody posted about Stuxnet further down).
Or, more accurately, I’m more familiar with the small ones (ThermoFisher calls them “Mini” and “Micro” centrifuges) for ~0.5mL samples and I had a hard time thinking that those would blow out a room. But the same link (ThermFisher) that I looked at to find the names also specifies 17,000g and 21,000g models which is just… fucking insane. I knew they spun fast, I didn’t know they spun 21,000g’s fast. Learn something new every day.
IMO, you missed the best bit off: