Oxy/Acetylene Welding
We use oxy/acetylene for brazing in the collision repair industry, but, it is not really used for cutting much in the automotive industry, as it create too much heat and can warp or ruin today’s metals. MIG welding has replaced oxy/acetylene for welding purposes.
There are still certain weld types that recommend brazing for the sealing properties brass provides, but MIG welders are also being used with brass, which is called MIG brazing.
Even though oxy/acetylene is not used much in the automotive industry, there may be times you need to do a rough cut, heat a bolt, or perform a little brazing. Therefore, I,m going to touch on the subject.
Oxygen
First of all we’ll talk about an oxygen cylinder. It is a high pressure bottle (up to 2200 psi) and oxygen is one of the elements needed to make fire. The three elements to make a fire are a fuel source, an ignition, and oxygen. So the oxygen is highly flammable. The more oxygen that you add to a fire the hotter it is going to get. A lot of care needs to be taken handling the oxygen bottle because it is highly concentrated and highly flammable. Dirty oily rags or wrenches that you may be using to change the cylinder bottle may cause an explosion. Therefore, you need to make sure that equipment used is clean and they don’t have any oil on them. Also note that you never want to use any type of lubricant or anything like that. This can be dangerous and may result in explosion.
Acetylene
The other bottle, which is used a lot for the fuel source is the acetylene bottle. It is a low pressure bottle. It is only has up to 250 pounds, but care must be taken handling this bottle as well.
What Oxy/acetylene May Be Used for in a Body Shop
Oxy/acetylene may be used for brazing. You may do some rough cuts and things like that, but, plasma torches has replaced the cutting and I think oxygen/acetylene is being phased out with new repair methods. As I mentioned, there are some recommendations of areas on a vehicle that need to be sealed really good like sail panels, as recommendations are to braze the joint, as brass provides superior sealing properties over other type of welds. This helps keep moisture out and helps fight corrosion with its superior sealing properties. Brass is also a more flexible and there are other benefits to brass.
Brass Is Not A Fusion Weld
Brass is it not a fusion process like when something is welded with oxygen/acetylene or the MIG welding. Fusion means that the two pieces are melted together making one piece. When brazing, it is like gluing or soldering or something together, as it does not melt the metals together. One benefit of brass is that it uses lower heat to melt the brass. The amount of heat used is always something to consider because too much heat in the automotive industry can ruin the metals, such as high strength steel.
Benefits of Brass
The benefit of brass is the sealing properties it provides to prevent corrosion and the lower heat used to join the metals together.
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