Oxy–fuel welding and cutting

Uncommon card · No. 183690

Oxy–fuel welding (commonly called oxyacetylene welding, oxy welding, or gas welding in the United States) and oxy–fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases (or liquid fuels such as gasoline or petrol, diesel, biodiesel, kerosene, etc) and oxygen to weld or cut metals. French engineers Edmond Fouché and Charles Picard became the first to develop oxygen-acetylene welding in 1903. Pure oxygen, instead of air, is used to increase the flame temperature to allow localized melting of the workpiece material (e.g. steel) in a room environment. A common propane/air flame burns at about 2,250 K (1,980 °C; 3,590 °F), a propane/oxygen flame burns at about 2,526 K (2,253 °C; 4,087 °F), an oxyhydrogen flame burns at 3,073 K (2,800 °C; 5,072 °F) and an acetylene/oxygen flame burns at about 3,773 K (3,500 °C; 6,332 °F). During the early 20th century, before the development and availability of coated arc welding electrodes in the late 1920s that were capable of making sound welds in steel, oxy–acetylene...

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