Edinburgh Hacklab

TIG Welder Oxygen Depletion risk

To gauge the risk of oxygen depletion due to release of the compressed argon, I've followed the British Compressed Gases Association's guidance node 11 - Reduced oxygen atmospheres. In it, they lay out a calculation for resulting oxygen concentration after a gas release in section 3.2 and a worked example in Appendix 1.

The following is the calculation for G8 given a 20L argon cylinder:

Total room volume: 4.5m * 6.1m * 2.6m = 71.37m3

Cautious estimate that 20% of that volume is taken by cupboards/tools/stuff, so actual volume of air in the room: Vr = 71.37 * 0.8 = 57.096m3

Volume of oxygen after gas release: Vo = 0.21 * (Vr - Volume of gas in cylinder) = 0.21 * (57.096m3 - (20L * 200bar / 1000)) = 0.21 * (57.096m3 - 4m3) = 11.15016m3

Resulting oxygen concentration: Cox = 100 * Vo / Vr = 100 * 11.15016 / 57.096 = 19.53%

This oxygen concentration is well above the 18% minimum recommended by the HSE.

tigwelder/oxygen.txt · Last modified: by aria