Product Description
Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that ABB Lummus Global — successor to Lummus Company and to the Combustion Engineering-Lummus refinery business — licensed and supplied catalytic cracking units to U.S. refineries with asbestos-woven fabric expansion joints at the cyclone outlet transitions and reactor overhead connections and with asbestos-block hot-side lagging on the reactor and regenerator vessel shells. The asbestos-fabric expansion joints allegedly absorbed thermal growth on the hot flue-gas path, and the asbestos-block lagging allegedly held skin temperatures down on the high-temperature vessel walls.
Plaintiffs alleged that Lummus catalytic cracker components remained in service across U.S. refineries from the 1940s through the 1980s, requiring periodic turnaround tear-out and replacement of asbestos-fabric expansion joints and asbestos-block lagging.
Workers Exposed
Plaintiffs allegedly exposed to ABB Lummus Global / Lummus / CE-Lummus catalytic cracker asbestos-containing components include:
- Refinery boilermakers and vessel welders performing catalytic cracker reactor and regenerator internals hot-work
- Refinery insulators stripping and re-lagging hot-side asbestos block on reactor and regenerator shells
- Refinery pipefitters and steamfitters tying in overhead transfer lines and cyclone dip legs
- Refinery turnaround (TAR) contractors and shutdown crews cutting out asbestos-fabric expansion joints
- Refinery outside operators and process operators working around hot cyclone and overhead paths
- Refinery bricklayers and refractory masons rebuilding cyclone and reactor refractory-lined internals
- Refinery millwrights and mechanical maintenance