Handbook-Oxy-Acet Cutting & Welding

Hard- Surfacing, Building Fusion Welding Carbon Welding Non-Ferrous Metals Heating & Heat Treating Braze Welding Welding Cast Iron Welding Ferrous Metals Brazing & Soldering Equipment Set-Up Operation Equipment For OXY-Acet Structure of Steel Mechanical Properties of Metals Oxygen & Acetylene OXY-Acet Flame Physical Properties of Metals How Steels Are Classified Expansion & Contraction Prep For Welding OXY-Acet Welding & Cutting Safety Practices Manual Cutting Oxygen Cutting By Machine Appendices Testing & Inspecting

4 Continued on next page... All the acetylene made from calcium carbide during the first few years was used for lighting purposes: house lighting, miners’ lamps, and (a bit later automobile lamps). In 1895, however, a French chemist, Henry Le Chatelier, announced to the world that combustion of equal quantities of acetylene and oxygen produced a flame far hotter (about 6000⁰F or 3300⁰C) than any gas flame previously known. Further, he pointed out that the flame did not oxidize the metals which it melted. At once, experimenters went to work to find a way of controlling the flame for welding purposes. Credit for producing the first torch is generally given to Edmond Fouche, of France, who had already discovered a safe way to compress acetylene into cylinders. In 1903, Fouche sent one of his first torches to the U.S., where it was used with success in that same year. While the process of making acetylene from calcium carbide which came into being in the 1890’s is still used to make most of our acetylene today, the process by which virtually all oxygen used today in welding and cutting is made did not exist until the year 1902. Until then, and for some years after that date, oxygen was generally made, as it had been for many years, by heating of various compounds which were rich in oxygen. The Oxy-Acetylene Processes Today Welding. It is true that the electric welding processes have almost completely taken over the production welding field. For most welding applications, there’s an electric welding process which will turn out good welds faster than the oxy-acetylene torch. If that is true, why bother with oxy-acetylene welding at all? Why are at least 50,000 oxy- acetylene welding and cutting outfits sold every year in the U.S.? Some would say that the answer lies in the two words ”and cutting”. There’s some truth in that, but not the whole truth. A better answer is this one: That an oxy- acetylene outfit is more versatile, more readily portable, and far less expensive than any comparable electric welding outfit. With the oxy-acetylene torch, and an assortment of welding rods and fluxes which can be purchased almost anywhere in the country, you can weld just about everything, and do it well. You can put the outfit in the back of a truck, take it almost anywhere, and use it almost anywhere. You can weld, you can cut, you can do a variety of heating jobs. If you have such an outfit, you may use it more for cutting than for welding, but if you don’t use it for a lot of welding, you probably aren’t taking full advantage of its capabilities.