IMPROVEMENTS IN BURNERS

摘要

A gas burner which can use a hydrocarbon fuel other than acetylene or methylacetylene as the fuel gas and air as the oxidant has means (18) for preheating the oxidant gas and means (14) for preheating the fuel gas which becomes cracked. These gases are delivered into a chamber (67) where they become mixed under highly turbulent conditions, and then pass through nozzle (86) and shroud (100) and form a flame (97) of high intensity and high turbulence. The flame typically produces more than 150 MW/metre3, e.g. 300-500 MW/metre3 for lower temperature operations and at least 500 MW/metre3 for welding or cutting steel. Its turbulence, indicated by its acoustic/thermal ratio, is typically about 6x10-6 and enables air of the boundary layer which insulates the workpiece to be stripped off. In an alternative arrangement configured as a gas cutting torch, preheated air or other cutting gas is supplied to a jet adjacent the main flame. A gas torch or gas cutting torch according to the invention can be fuelled with propane or propylene which are inexpensive to store and use, but can achieve a performance comparable to that of an oxyacetylene torch.