When cutting with an acetylene cutting torch. Manufacturers of acetylene torch equipment. Welding supply store's that sell acetylene & oxygen have what is called the 1/10 acetylene gas withdrawal rate rule.
The purpose of the rule is to avoid the possibility of the tank, gage's, hose exploding. Depending on the size of a acetylene bottle if it were to explode can create a fire ball 75 meters in diameter and throw shrapnel 200 meter's.
The 1/10 withdrawal rate/hour is easy enough to understand. You simply divide the acetylene tanks capacity by 10 to come up with how many cubic feet per hour that you are supposed to withdraw to avoid creating a voiltal or dangerous situation that can cause things like fire burning back through the hose's to the regulators at which point could melt the hoses or blow up the regulators. At which point should shut the gas off if the regulators explode but not always. Very possible the regulators don't stop the flame and then the bottle can explode.
There are other things that can happen but I am not going to go to the trouble of mentioning all of the other hazards because I have explained enough instances to get my point across of just how dangerous acetylene and oxygen bottles can be if you were to withdraw acetylene gas too fast and volume low enough to cause these things to happen.
I have looked and researched all over the internet to find out a missing part of being able to use this 1/10 rule withdrawal rate rule that is enforced by OSHA, PHIMSA and other other government agencies who enforce things like this 1/10 rule and another one called the 1/15 rule.
That missing part is the rate of flow that you are withdrawing the gas so that you can have an idea how much acetylene gas has been dispensed by the torch operator so that you don't exceed that 1/10 volume of gas per hour.
Does anyone know how to figure that ? The only way I can think of doing it and doubt this would work. Would be to weigh a full tank of acetylene, then dived that weight by 10 to get a ball park figure as to what 1/10 of the acetylene tanks volume would be. Which would be a lot of trouble because you would have to sit the acetylene bottle on scales, leave them that way, monitor the weight until either you have taken the 1/10 of acetylene gas or run out of the one hour time limit. And to do that you would have to use like a 145 cubic feet capacity bottle which I think is like a size 14 bottle and weighs around 150 lbs. next size up would be like a 350 cubic foot bottle that weighs around 350 #'s which would differently be too much trouble because of it's weight. Especially when there should be a mathematical solution to figure out the flow rate.
This is a lot of trouble to try and figure out. But it might be more trouble if a person was to blow themselves up. If you don't need to cut very thick metal very often you would probably never be in a situation to need to know this stuff. But if you are possibly going to be cutting a lot of 1/2 inch metal and bigger. Or use a rose bud very much things like that were you use al lot of acetylene fast. That 1/10 rule and 1/15 rules would be nice to know.
I am not sure who figured out these 1/10 and 1/15 rules. Know I said places that sell acetylene and welding stores came up with these rules but I don't think they did. I have asked these same questions at places like air gas & welsco places that sell acetylene and they have never heard of these rules.
Before these rules it was 1/7 instead of 1/10. By changing it to 1/10 that narrows the range even more on the withdrawal rate. So whoever came up with these rules must seem to think
It is very important safety wise to have narrowed the withdrawal rate per hour even more than what it was. It's hard to believe this rule can be found on the internet and part of the explanation as how to use it isn't no where to be found.
Hoping someone will read this and be able to explain how it works or know the missing part of how it works.
The purpose of the rule is to avoid the possibility of the tank, gage's, hose exploding. Depending on the size of a acetylene bottle if it were to explode can create a fire ball 75 meters in diameter and throw shrapnel 200 meter's.
The 1/10 withdrawal rate/hour is easy enough to understand. You simply divide the acetylene tanks capacity by 10 to come up with how many cubic feet per hour that you are supposed to withdraw to avoid creating a voiltal or dangerous situation that can cause things like fire burning back through the hose's to the regulators at which point could melt the hoses or blow up the regulators. At which point should shut the gas off if the regulators explode but not always. Very possible the regulators don't stop the flame and then the bottle can explode.
There are other things that can happen but I am not going to go to the trouble of mentioning all of the other hazards because I have explained enough instances to get my point across of just how dangerous acetylene and oxygen bottles can be if you were to withdraw acetylene gas too fast and volume low enough to cause these things to happen.
I have looked and researched all over the internet to find out a missing part of being able to use this 1/10 rule withdrawal rate rule that is enforced by OSHA, PHIMSA and other other government agencies who enforce things like this 1/10 rule and another one called the 1/15 rule.
That missing part is the rate of flow that you are withdrawing the gas so that you can have an idea how much acetylene gas has been dispensed by the torch operator so that you don't exceed that 1/10 volume of gas per hour.
Does anyone know how to figure that ? The only way I can think of doing it and doubt this would work. Would be to weigh a full tank of acetylene, then dived that weight by 10 to get a ball park figure as to what 1/10 of the acetylene tanks volume would be. Which would be a lot of trouble because you would have to sit the acetylene bottle on scales, leave them that way, monitor the weight until either you have taken the 1/10 of acetylene gas or run out of the one hour time limit. And to do that you would have to use like a 145 cubic feet capacity bottle which I think is like a size 14 bottle and weighs around 150 lbs. next size up would be like a 350 cubic foot bottle that weighs around 350 #'s which would differently be too much trouble because of it's weight. Especially when there should be a mathematical solution to figure out the flow rate.
This is a lot of trouble to try and figure out. But it might be more trouble if a person was to blow themselves up. If you don't need to cut very thick metal very often you would probably never be in a situation to need to know this stuff. But if you are possibly going to be cutting a lot of 1/2 inch metal and bigger. Or use a rose bud very much things like that were you use al lot of acetylene fast. That 1/10 rule and 1/15 rules would be nice to know.
I am not sure who figured out these 1/10 and 1/15 rules. Know I said places that sell acetylene and welding stores came up with these rules but I don't think they did. I have asked these same questions at places like air gas & welsco places that sell acetylene and they have never heard of these rules.
Before these rules it was 1/7 instead of 1/10. By changing it to 1/10 that narrows the range even more on the withdrawal rate. So whoever came up with these rules must seem to think
It is very important safety wise to have narrowed the withdrawal rate per hour even more than what it was. It's hard to believe this rule can be found on the internet and part of the explanation as how to use it isn't no where to be found.
Hoping someone will read this and be able to explain how it works or know the missing part of how it works.
