Chapter 12: Oxy-Fuel Cutting (OFC)

An overhead view of a worker wearing an orange helmet, orange protective pants, a black protective shirt, and gloves uses an oxy-fuel cutting setup to cut a shape out of a piece of metal.
Photo Credit: MHM55, CC BY-SA 4.0

Overview

It’s 1836, a man named Edmund Davy is attempting to chemically isolate potassium. Edmund is about to make an accidental discovery that will be applied in metalworking industries into our present day; he is about to discover acetylene (Iivonen, 2005).

The combustion of acetylene with oxygen produces the third hottest chemical flame currently known, burning at temperatures near 6,000o F. Since its discovery, the gas combination of oxygen and acetylene, commonly abbreviated oxy-acetylene, has found use in a wide variety of applications. Welding, brazing, braze-welding, heating, and its most common modern use: cutting, which will be the primary focus of this chapter.

In the following pages, we will explore the equipment, set-up, and operation of oxygen-fuel cutting (OFC), as well as the special safety and handling considerations that must be taken into account when working with this particularly volatile combination of gasses.

Objectives

After completing this chapter, students will be able to:

  • List the uses of oxygen-fuel cutting (OFC) processes in industry
  • Identify equipment associated with the OFC process.
  • Identify different gasses associated with the OFC process.
  • Explain the fundamentals of Oxy-fuel cutting techniques
  • Explain the Oxy-Acetylene welding process.
  • Describe special safety concerns associated with the OFC process.

Key Terms

  • Kindling temperature
  • Soot
  • Double-stage regulator
  • Oxidizing flame
  • Neutral flame
  • Carburizing flame
  • sustained backfire
  • Torch Tips
  • Rose bud

Attributions

  1. Chapter opening image: Small City, travaux 1-58e-chalumeau by MHM55 is released under CC BY-SA 4.0

License

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Introduction to Welding Copyright © by Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.