Ann: Quarterly Report and Appendix 5B , page-29

I don't think a shear pin would help if the integrity of the welding is suspect.. It sounds like the shaft (0.35m diameter) was directly welded to the top plate, which is in turn bolted to the drive train, and there was no bracing.. Poor welding technique in that case would cause pretty quick failure of the weld. No doubt the stresses while in motion would be uneven across the weld. In that case, some sort of bracing would make quite a bit of difference, presuming there is space for bracing within the tank.. It also sounds like the manufacturer also designed the agitators, going from the announcement in the quarterly.. This is not insurmountable. In fact it sounds like an easy fix. The problem lies in the possibility of having multiple agitator failures before they have time fix them.. This is still a hold for me, just..