Product Description
Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Struthers Wells Corporation supplied closed feedwater heaters and shell-and-tube heat exchangers to utility, industrial, and refinery feedwater and process systems across the mid-20th century, and that those heaters were originally furnished — and periodically re-insulated — with an allegedly asbestos-containing woven fabric outer lagging and asbestos-cloth wrap installed beneath the metal jacket, along with CAF sheet gaskets at the manway and tube-bundle access flanges.
According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, any Struthers Wells heater outage requiring shell repair, retube, or head removal forced insulators to strip the outer metal jacket, cut and pull the aged asbestos-fabric lagging, and re-wrap the heater with new insulation on completion — with the aged fabric lagging allegedly releasing respirable fibers as it was cut, torn, and thrown into salvage bags at the heater deck.
Workers Exposed
- Insulators stripping and re-applying the asbestos-fabric lagging and cloth wrap around the heater shell, heads, and manway
- Boilermakers performing feedwater heater retubes, tube-plugging, and shell repairs after lagging strip-out
- Pipefitters breaking and remaking the extraction-steam, drain, vent, and condensate flanges tied into the heater