The main action during cutting or welding takes place within the tip. Usually, welding tips will produce positive pressure and will be used with same pressure of oxygen and acetylene.
These single-hole tips of copper-alloy are attached to welding torch having a handle that has a mixer which mixes fuel and oxygen, almost like a carburettor in our cars that mixes air and gas.
Welding tips for mixing oxygen and fuel
In Cigweld welding equipment, welding tips will mix oxygen with fuel, and thereafter the mixed gas will be pushed through welding tip and will be burned at the end of tip.
Unfortunately, for users there can be confusion about the right uniformity and size of the welding or cutting tips that is to be used.
Depending upon the fuel gas to be used for deciding flame characteristics, the tip design will be chosen. Besides, the desired use of cutting tip will also decide the tip choice. Cutting tips may come either in one-piece or two-piece style.
For withstanding heat of your cutting process, one-piece tips can also be used with acetylene, that are made of copper alloy which is drilled, machined and swaged over the special wires for producing exact holes for cutting oxygen bores and preheats.
One-piece welding tips
Acetylene tips can be produced with 4 to 6 preheat holes and are manufactured to permit light, medium, as well as heavy preheats for using with dirty, clean or rusted plate.
For blowing rivets through certain plate without damaging, rivet-washing tips will use low-velocity oxygen stream for cutting. Different tips are available to gouge out welds, sheet metal cutting and other special uses.
These one-piece tips are also used with methylacetylene-propidine (MAPP) and propylene. There can be 8 preheat holes for providing extra heat needed for these gases. Generally, two-piece tips will provide best results with propylene and MAPP gas.
One-piece tips will have oxygen bores which come in 2 configurations:
- Straight bore for hand cutting by using 40 – 60 PSI
- Divergent bore which has a flared or tapered outlet hole for using in machine cutting. These tips use a pressure of 70 to 100 PSI to increase the cutting speed by 25% over the above.
Two-piece welding tips
Two-piece tips generally consist of one external shell and also a splined slot in. The splined insert will be used for eliminating the need of drilling numerous preheat holes needed for cooler and other slower-burning fuel gases.
Configurations of different spline will allow different fuel gas to burn with enhanced efficiency.
MAPP and propylene can provide most efficient preheats by using rectangular, fine splines and little recess of insert into front face of shell to anchor preheat flames.
For propane, methane and natural gas, V-splines can make preheats much more efficient. Usually small tips will have small splines while large tips will use wide V-splines.
All these gases need deeper recess between insert and shell to anchor better to preheat flames of all these gases that are slower-burning.
Cutting torch starting with cut and 0action
Two-piece tips can also be used for other alternative fuel gases like natural gas, propylene, methane, MAPP, and propane.
The oxygen bores of two-piece tips may have divergent or straight configuration like in one-piece tips and special tips are also available for gouging and washing.