Flame from Oxygen and Acetylene...Regulations?

[DEatEW]

My company is receiving a machine that mixes oxygen and acetylene to produce a flame in a hardening process. It will also include water cooling, electric and pneumatic actuators.

Are there any safety and health regulations that need to be considered in this process?

Ventilations, fail safe controls, storage of oxygen and acetylene tanks, location of process, etc.

Thanks for your time.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Look to the manufacturer for guidance in these areas. They certainly should provide whatever info you need.

 

[DEatEW]

This machine is a custom made machine built over seas from our own company.

They are wanting us to advise them on what regulations we have here in the States that they might not have over there.

My bad on not putting that forward in the initial post.

 

[unclesyd]

I'm not an expert but here goes with some of the problems we had for an apparatus that use these gases in other than normal quanities.

There are a myriad of regulations concerning O2 and Acetylene in a situation such as yours. You will have to start generally with the rules for cutting and burning and go from there depending on how you are to supply both gases, where the storage tanks are located, and all the plumbing for said gases.
In our case we had to have several acetylene tanks manifold to prevent excessive drawdown on one cylinder. The acetylene cylinders were located in small temperature controlled building all by themselves. We went to LO2 for the O2 supply in tank located on the outside of the main building. We had very elaborate "flashback" preventers on both systems.
What I would do is to get with some large welding supply company or the company that will provided the gases for assistance. Your situation and like ours turned out to be like a system that would supply a fab shop.
We had a few problems with fire protection people on a lot of minor details.

 

[MintJulep]

Talk to your insurance provider.

All current gas burner equipment safety regs may be traced back to development by the insurance industry - they got tired of paying out claims for things blowing up.

Two major underwriters (or associations?) - IRI (Industrial Risk Insurers) and FM (Factory Mutual) are the most commonly used standards in the USA.

 

[tomwalz]

See if you can get help from the state. In many states they are happy to do this. Washington has a great voluntary compliance system though labor and industries.

tom

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

 

[safetydan]

Sounds like you are going to have some big headaches, but here are my thoughts:

Talk with your risk insurer and get their thoughts(and experts) involved.

Talk with the AHJ(Fire Marshall) about fire issues as well as letting them know you are going to have a highly combustable material and O2 onsite. Get their feedback and concerns.

OSHA States: "1910.102(b)

"Piped systems." The piped systems for the inplant transfer and distribution of acetylene shall be designed, installed, maintained, and operated in accordance with Compressed Gas Association Pamphlet G-1.3-1959, which is incorporated by reference as specified in Sec. 1910.6."

 

[eromlignod]

I'm currently working on updating the controls for an oxygen-acetylene process for Union Carbide. It uses a gun that is fueled with oxygen and acetylene and that triggers a pulsing flame with a spark plug driven from a mechanical magneto that also controls a valve that admits powdered carbide. The pulses of carbide are liquified by the explosion and deposited in the molten state onto blades for jet engines in a continuous coating process. The process is very violent.

Oxy-acetylene scares the hell out of me, but I was actually surprised at how simply they deal with it. The gun is located in a sealed room, sort of like a walk-in cooler, that has ventillation at either end that constantly recirculates air in one side and out the other (like a paint booth) and back to the roof where it is just exhausted into the air. The fan motors are only about 10 hp.

The blades have to be set up in a fixture that moves them around while the gun coats them. The worker wears a respirator while in the booth, but only because of the carbide dust. Apparently the fuel gases are not a big concern. When I was troubleshooting the new program, I didn't even have to wear a repirator since we didn't run it with powder until the very end.

When the blade is ready, the operator strikes a mushroom button near the exit door as she leaves and a buzzer sounds. The operator then has fifteen seconds to get out of the room and seal the door. The system is then "armed". After the coating process is finished, the magneto is grounded out to stop the flame, and the fuel gases are shut off. But a purge gas (nitrogen) is then introduced which flushes out the gun barrel for fifteen seconds. After this she must wait another ten seconds while the ventillator fans run some more before she can open the door. Then everything is fine and she can walk right into the room.

The controls I was replacing were from 1968 (relay logic!), so they have been using this process successfully for a long time with no problems.

Hope this helps.

Don
Kansas City

 

[mcgyvr]

Talk to OSHA.
They will often provide you with free consulting on what safety measures need to be met.

 

[KENAT]

What state & county are you in as this may affect this.

Talk to OSHA & fire martial. There are consultants I believe that deal with this kind of thing. Our facilities guy sits near me and he seems to spend a lot of time on the phone on this kind of issue.

I seem to remember Oxygen itself will probably have some pretty stringent requirements.

I wonder if anyone over in forum725 may be familiar with equipment using these gasses.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[IceStationZebra]

Oxy/acetylene set-ups aren't too scary. If it was that dangerous there would be a lot more people killed every year. (farmers, construction workers, mechanics, etc.) I grew up on a farm and started using our torch when I was about 14.

A properly adjusted torch will only give off CO2, but you can get toxic gases if you cut certain materials like galvanized steel or paint. You can also get sun burn if you do a lot of cutting in short sleeves, but it isn't nearly as bad as welding.

The two big safety items are don't knock off the valve on the tank and keep oil away from your regulators!

ISZ