Benefits of Cryogenic Gas Storage for Welding Applications
If you are running a welding operation with a high gas consumption rate, storing and changing welding gas cylinders can start to have considerable efficiency costs. Cryogenic gas storage provides a cost-effective solution that improves safety and reduces time spent replenishing your gas supply.
How much gas does your welding operation use? Even if great care is taken to use welding gas economically, a busy fabricator can get through a large amount of it.
Manual handling is time intensive from taking delivery of cylinders, storing them, and changing out cylinders when they’re empty; all these activities use up resources that could be better spent. From an administrative perspective, time is also required for ordering, arranging deliveries and collections, as well as invoicing.
Have you ever stopped to consider how much time is spent managing your welding gas cylinders? As the saying goes – time is money. Therefore, for some larger operations, sizeable time efficiencies can drive savings to the bottom line.
Cryogenic gases are liquified gases typically with boiling points below -150oC. They are produced via the fractional distillation of air. Nitrogen, oxygen and argon are produced this way – liquified carbon dioxide is manufactured slightly differently.
These gases are stored on-site in bulk tanks on customer premises and delivered via the supplier in various sizes of tankers. The gas is then piped from the tank to the welding drop point. It is important to consider that external space will be required to install the tank and allow for tanker access, as well as the requirement for internal pipework from the tank to welding bays.
Storing gas in liquid form offers numerous advantages. Firstly, the operational costs of handling and changing cylinders are completely eliminated. Deliveries are often required less frequently and can be carried out unsupervised – meaning they can take place outside of working hours, ensuring that a supply of welding gas is always available when needed.
Eliminating cylinders also improves safety. Safe handling of gas cylinders requires special care and protective equipment.1 Using gas which is piped directly to the point of use removes any need for cylinder handling. Gas storage is safer as heavy gas cylinders are removed from the factory floor, with the additional bonus of clearing valuable workspace.
As well as a lower cost per unit volume of gas, labour savings from using a cryogenic storage system can help to recover the system’s installation costs.2
As a supplier of industrial gases across all industries, we offer tank sizes from 180 to 60,000 litres. However, a popular solution for welding operations is our range of smaller (200 – 2,000 litre) CryoEase® tanks.
Our CryoEase® systems provide high purity gases and gas mixtures to ensure consistent high-quality results. All our most popular welding gases and gas mixtures, including the full Maxx® gases range, are available in this convenient mode of supply.
CryoEase® storage tanks are compact and easily installed – in most cases there’s no need for special foundations or planning permissions. If your organisation doesn’t have a gas distribution system in place, it’s a simple matter for Air Products to design and install one that meets your requirements.
An uninterrupted gas supply means that expensive downtime due to refilling or cylinder changeovers can become a thing of the past and you can be sure that your welding operations can always run at full capacity.
If you’re interested in adopting a more efficient gas supply system and would like to find out more about CryoEase®, get in touch with us today.
1. University of Wollongong. Storage and Handling of Gas Cylinders Guidelines Contents. Available at: https://documents.uow.edu.au/content/groups/public/@web/@ohs/documents/doc/uow136686.pdf. (Accessed: 13th May 2020)
2. Shielding gas consumption efficiency-- Part I: Spend a penny, save a dollar. Available at: https://www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/article/consumables/shielding-gas-consumption-efficiency---part-i-spend-a-penny-save-a-dollar. (Accessed: 13th May 2020)
3. CryoEase ® service The ideal solution for higher-volume users providing improved safety and increased productivity. Available at: https://www.airproducts.co.uk/microsite/uk/welding_selector/pdf/CryoEase.pdf. (Accessed: 13th May 2020)
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