Cutting

We have used our Water Torch technology on ‘shapers’ (automatic gas cutting machines) and it works like a dream, cutting 30% faster with a wonderful cut that requires a lot less work to finish (heat hardening is a fraction of using acetylene).

Remember, the flame itself is ‘cool’. The flame directed against a material causes that material to go to it’s melting temperature. Oxidized iron has a considerably higher melting temperature than non-oxidized iron.

We’ve also noted that iron that has been surface treated with a Brown’s Gas flame is much more resistant to rust.

There are some additional side benefits. For some reason, thick scale or rust on iron will not spit and pop as you cut it, like it does with nearly any other torch. And when cutting bolts out of concrete it does it smooth and clean.

Working under an automobile is great because the flame energy is directed like a laser, not setting fire to grease, oil and rubber, just cutting what it’s directed at quickly and cleanly. The flame is ‘cool’, so radiant heat is not setting grease, oil and rubber on fire either; great for muffler shops that chop off old exhaust systems with torches. In fact, thin metal like exhaust systems can be cut with the pure BG flame; no additional oxygen required.

Some Brown’s Gas Advantages — Cutting of Iron:

• BG Flame can punch holes in iron and other materials without additional oxygen. The gas already contains all the oxygen it needs to burn perfectly.
• BG holes have very little taper (compared with fuel-gasses) and ‘throwback’ significantly less material when punching through iron.
• BG Flame cones are long, allowing the torch to be held farther away from the work. This results in virtually no torch cleaning maintenance or tip damage. We’ve been using the same torch cutting nozzle for over four years and have never needed to clean it.
• BG Flame cuts iron much faster than any other torch gas on a BTU to BTU basis.
• BG Flame will cut thicker iron with the same torch tip and oxygen pressures.
• BG Flame will cut the same thickness of steel using a smaller torch tip. This allows for faster, cleaner cuts with less kerf.
• BG Flame cuts from 10% to 25% faster with excellent quality and no slag or dross.
• Faster, higher quality cuts allow jobs to be finished quicker, saving operator wages or allowing more work to be done in the same time, increasing profit potential.
• Faster cut, smaller tip and no added oxygen to maintain the flame result in about 40% less bottled oxygen used when cutting iron.
• BG Flame does not require extra oxygen to maintain itself and (optionally) only uses bottled oxygen when actually cutting iron. For all other BG torch operations no bottled oxygen is needed, resulting in a significant reduction or elimination of oxygen costs as well as the originally replaced industrial bottled fuel-gas.

Note: The reason bottled oxygen is added to any fuel-gas flame (and some plasma torches) to ‘cut’ iron is because the iron is not being ‘cut’; it is ‘oxidizing’. Once the iron is hot enough to oxidize, the extra oxygen assists this oxidation process.

Ordinarily, it doesn’t matter which fuel-gas you use, the oxidation process (cutting speed) is limited by the oxygen assisting the oxidation, and so the cutting speed of most fuel-gasses is exactly the same.

Brown’s Gas has a significantly faster cutting speed because the ‘new oxygen’ in the Brown’s Gas actually speeds up the oxidation process. The ‘new oxygen’ is more ‘reactive’ than bottled oxygen.

• BG Flame preheats cheaper than any other fuel-gas method, on a BTU to BTU basis.
• BG Flame cuts are straighter than any other flame or plasma.
• BG Flame can cut very thick iron, or can cut on angle through several inches.
• BG Flame can melt nearly any material on earth.
• BG Flame has zero radiant energy that can hurt human eyes. No protective goggles are needed to look at the flame.

BG Flame heats material much less than other fuel-gasses during cutting, thus has:

• less heat hardening compared to other flames
• less heat distortion (buckling) of the metal
• less stresses in the metal
• less dressing costs before machining (if any)
• Cut has little or no slag (because molten metal doesn’t stick to cold metal)
• can cut very thin slices of metal, which a ‘hot’ flame cannot do.

BG Flame will cut through rust with much less spitting and popping compared to other gasses

BG Flame will cut iron out of wet concrete without the concrete exploding

• BG Flame will cut wet metal without spitting
• BG Flame will cut iron oxide
• BG Flame can ‘surface treat’ iron to increase rust resistance. BG flame cuts are very rust resistant.
• BG Flame can ‘surface harden’ iron to increase wear resistance.

Brown’s Gas has less density than most fuel-gasses, so more volume comes out the same size orifices. Brown’s Gas weighs about 1/2 atmosphere, so is a ‘Lighter Than Air’ gas that does not concentrate to form explosive mixtures.

BG Flame has ‘imploding’ characteristics:

• long thin ‘laser-like’ flame as it makes a tunnel in the air
• very directed energy, can be pin point precise
• has very little ‘radiant’ heat; advantages include:
• easier not to burn oil, grease, rubber and wires under vehicles
• easier not to burn wood when soldering plumbing
• prevents operator burns

BG Flame is ‘imploding’; the ‘vacuum’ drawing smoke from the work piece back into the flame and burning it. BG Flame implosion has a sustained inner vacuum that can be used for special effects.

Brown’s Gas is easily adapted to current fuel-gas torch technology:’consumables’ cost is almost nothing, torch tips stay clean. Significant time savings because torch tips do not require maintenance.

Torch tips stay cooler, helping them stay clean and reducing operator burns.

Use all the same equipment (hoses, valves, torch tips, etc.) as all other fuel-gas. With other fuel-gasses you need to change hoses when changing the gas.

Quick change between BG and fuel-gas technologies

Use of BG in current equipment requires minimal training.

Flame ignites easily and does not need adjustment to get the perfect mixture, saving time and not wasting gas.

• Need for bottles, rental, transportation, handling, demarge (bottle) charge, contracts can be reduced or eliminated.
• Need for secure bottle storage can be reduced or eliminated.

In remote areas, there is a serious problem with accumulation of propane, oxygen and acetylene bottles because the cost to transport the bottles back to be refilled exceeds the cost of a new bottle. In this case, local water and electricity (may have to transport fuel for generator) can eliminate this waste and cost. Further, room is freed up in the transports for other cargo. Further, the danger of transporting the bottles is eliminated.

Health
Since the BG ‘exhaust’ is pure water, the health issues associated with all other fuel gasses are eliminated. Usual Health Hazzards include: exposure to fumes, gasses and ionizing radiation; causing heavy metal poisoning, lung cancer, metal fume fever, flash burns, and more…

Carbon Monoxide from typical oxy-acetylene cut is 100 parts per million (recommended safety limit is 50 parts per million). It is a colorless, odorless gas that causes headaches, fatigue, nausea, dizzy spells, confusion and irritability; increased levels cause vomiting, loss of consiousness, brain damage and death.

Carbon mon-oxide builds up in the blood, having an cummulative effect on the body. In practical terms, studies show a significant rise in health related costs, time off, replacing employees due to carbon mon-oxide.

Brown’s Gas has no carbon molecule so produces no soot, carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide and can be used in an enclosed environment with no harm to the user (unless something being burned produces noxious fumes). Even if smoke is being produced by the workpiece, the implosive BG flame tends to draw in and burn the smoke. Pure water vapor is the exhaust of the flame, maintaining a healthy operating environment.

• Brown’s Gas flame does not use oxygen from the air to burn, thus can be used in an enclosed area without depleating the user’s oxygen.
• Less operator fatigue means less accidents and more productivity. Less insurance costs and less retraining new people when others are off on sick leave.

Some Brown’s Gas Disadvantages — Cutting Iron:
-BG Flame may require a longer preheat in cases where the torch tip is not optimized. On a BTU to BTU basis, nothing beats BG for preheating.
-Brown’s Gas can only ‘cut’ iron. Any other fuel-gas can only cut iron too and BG cuts iron faster than any other fuel-gas. Other technologies like shears, laser, plasma and water jet can cut nearly any material.
-Currently used automatic fuel-gas equipment (like shapers) may need slight modifications, like air purge and perhaps ignition timing change. We know these issues and have designed our BG technology to fit seamlessly onto currently used equipment. These modifications allow the use of other fuel-gasses at will.

Brown’s Gas — Welding Iron:
It is nearly impossible to get a good weld in iron when using BG. The ‘new’ oxygen tends to oxidize the weld. We feel that this is a non-issue in most shops because iron is mostly welded by electric arc methods. Torch gases are mostly used for cutting steel, and the ‘oxidizing effect’ of the BG causes it to be a superior CUTTING gas. BG is superior than any other torch gas for ALL other welding, brazing, soldering, plasma spray, preheating, etc.

Cast Iron
Our ERxxxx WaterTorches cut cast iron clean and fast. Then we can weld the same cast iron with ordinary cast iron rod, with no flux of any kind, using the puddle technique. Then we can dump the cast iron into water to cool it and it doesn’t break!!!!!! Cutting the weld shows that the weld has the same crystal structure as the parent material, so there is less stress to cause the metal to break when cooled rapidly.

Conclusion
All the above information is only a taste of the information we’ve gathered for just one application of Brown’s Gas (cutting iron). There are dozens of applications where Brown’s Gas is superior to currently used technology. You can see why our website is seriously behind in explaining about the advantages of this amazing gas.