Oxy Acetylene Welding 101

Oxy acetylene welding is a type of welding that uses fuel gas and oxygen to weld metal.

Many would not know it but oxy acetylene cutting and welding is actually one of the oldest welding techniques known to man, the reason many people do not know this is because the use of oxy acetylene cutting and welding has declined so it is a lesser known welding application to non welders.

Oxy acetylene welding was first found in 1903 by two French engineers named Edmond Fouché and Charles Picard and the process soon became widely used in the early nineteen hundreds.

The idea of oxy acetylene cutting welding is that you have two cylinders, one of a fuel gas such as acetylene and another cylinder of oxygen; this means that the welding technique uses pure oxygen instead of air as part of the process. The use of oxygen instead of air allows the oxy acetylene cutting and welder to hold a higher flame temperature when compared to other welders, in fact an oxy acetylene flame heats up to around 3,500 °C (6,330 °F).

When oxy acetylene welding, a welder will have two cylinders, one for oxygen and another for acetylene. The welder will also have an oxy acetylene welder and a welding torch to carry out the welding application.

Many would not know but you can actually use oxy acetylene for cutting metal as well as welding, this is because the welding torch generates enough heat to bring the metal up to melting temperature. When using an oxy acetylene torch it is always important to ensure you have the correct torch attached to the welder as there is a different torch for oxy acetylene cutting and welding.

A welding torch used in the welding application has the gas hoses attached to the base which attach to the cylinder with the gas on and off valves; two pipes come out of the cylinder and attach to the torch head. The oxy acetylene cutting torch has a few differences to the welding torch; these are that there is an oxygen blast trigger on the top, an oxygen blast valve on one side, three pipes instead of two and a nozzle that can be unscrewed on the torch head.

In this day and age oxy acetylene cutting and welding is still used in metal artwork, pipe and tube work, the glass industry, jewelery production and in stone work among other industries.