[DanaC]

I've heard that term. In fact it's a word I hate, because when we got a bad batch of pipes from the engineers we had to arse around removing little bits of swarf from places it really shouldn't be.

If people are going to be inhaling smoke through it, you really don't want little semi-detached coils or slivers of metal hiding in the oxygen feed of the pipe. Once you've found one on a QC check - the entire batch has to be thoroughly checked. Once you've seen it happen in more than one batch, you find yourself just checking every fucking pipe to make sure. I remember one lot of baby Blue pipes that had a tight coil of swarf about halfway down about 20% of the outlet pipes. Tiny pipe, tiny coil, made entirely of steel.

The afternoons I have spent just checking outlet pipes or oxygen feeds for swarf: then realising that this particular engineer's equipment has left a sheer little disc of swarf flush to the body, over the oxygen feed and the only way to know for sure is to apply a pipe cleaner to every one....or that this batch has a more attached bit of swarf that hasn't been brushing free with the pipe cleaner, and I'm gonna have to recheck the ones I've done already...etc.

Eventually every pipe that came through the business had to be checked: every component checked, every outlet or inlet, every threaded connection. Not an efficient use of manhours :P

Don't talk to me about swarf. Bleh.