Yes, that's why you are supposed to put the cap on the cylinder and why the cylinders ares supposed to be secured when transporting them.
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Storage of compressed gas bottles?
- Thread starter ps2cho
- Start date
I have an 80 cubic foot of Argon out in the garage secured by a chain-nothing fancy.
I only use it sporadically and generally do pull the regulator off and cap it when I'm not using it, but sometimes get lazy on that. '
I've handled gas bottles-usually in the big 300 cubic foot or equivalent size-regularly since I was in college. My "upbringing" in them, and learning about safety with them, is in chemistry labs and not at welding shops or the like. There are some differences-like using a lot of high purity gases and for many purposes not using them in huge volumes, but also definitely some differences. Most labs have tighter temperature controls than a typical shop.
I have quite literally seen bottles that have been in place and turned on for years in some circumstances(and without emptying them), although even in lab situations I would always turn them off if feasible. Still, though, I was responsible for one lab at my last job that had one bottle each helium and hydrogen that were plumbed to multiple stations around the room. The hydrogen was only used sporadically and could last 6 months or could last two weeks depending on exactly what people were doing in the lab(shared research/teaching facility), although I had more than one lazy teaching assistant leave it on overnight and I'd come in to an empty in the morning(and plenty got a tongue lashing from me especially when it happened more than once-the one that really got it was the one who did it twice in a week and I had to answer for the $100 same-day delivery charge because they'd killed one of my reserve bottles and someone else had needed the other I had before I had a chance to reorder). The helium would only get turned off to change cylinders, though, and it would last 4-6 weeks. Turning the helium bottle off was another way to get a tongue lashing from me as it was plumbed into things that really need constant low flow of helium.
One thing I was told a while back, and I've seen first hand, is that the valve on the bottle needs to be all the way open or all the way closed. Partially open can allow it to leak around the gland nut at the top.
I use to irritate people too over being a stickler for proper transport even to the other side of the lab. I'd see folks sometimes rolling one down the hall with the regulator hanging off of it. Transport is always done with the regulator removed and a cap installed, and ideally on a proper cart(for the big ones at least). Carts couldn't always get all the way to final destination(even in my own labs) but I'd take them as close as I could and not uncap or install the regulator until I had it secured in its final destination. Before I left that particular job, I'd even started switching some of the labs I was in charge of to wall-mount regulators with pigtails to avoid any movement with a full regulator hanging off(and more importantly avoid stressing the tubing on the other end of the regulator, which was copper for a lot of our applications), but that was expensive and I could only manage one or two a year.
If you see how the gas companies handle these, though, you see that maybe they have them in a warehouse or maybe under an awning. The small welding supply shop that sold me my argon at home has "cages" outside they keep the small ones in. It can be below zero or over 100 here, and they just keep on going. I know that typical full pressure for most gases is around 2200 psi if they're at roughly room temperature. Play with the numbers(you can use the Guy-Lussac law) and you'll see that even a hot day is going to go well below the proof temperature on one of these bottles. Chances are they'll still last 100+ years. I'm not exaggerating on that either-the next time you're around a bunch of them look at the proof markings and ones from the 40s are common. You won't have to look too long to find one from the 20s or 30s.
I only use it sporadically and generally do pull the regulator off and cap it when I'm not using it, but sometimes get lazy on that. '
I've handled gas bottles-usually in the big 300 cubic foot or equivalent size-regularly since I was in college. My "upbringing" in them, and learning about safety with them, is in chemistry labs and not at welding shops or the like. There are some differences-like using a lot of high purity gases and for many purposes not using them in huge volumes, but also definitely some differences. Most labs have tighter temperature controls than a typical shop.
I have quite literally seen bottles that have been in place and turned on for years in some circumstances(and without emptying them), although even in lab situations I would always turn them off if feasible. Still, though, I was responsible for one lab at my last job that had one bottle each helium and hydrogen that were plumbed to multiple stations around the room. The hydrogen was only used sporadically and could last 6 months or could last two weeks depending on exactly what people were doing in the lab(shared research/teaching facility), although I had more than one lazy teaching assistant leave it on overnight and I'd come in to an empty in the morning(and plenty got a tongue lashing from me especially when it happened more than once-the one that really got it was the one who did it twice in a week and I had to answer for the $100 same-day delivery charge because they'd killed one of my reserve bottles and someone else had needed the other I had before I had a chance to reorder). The helium would only get turned off to change cylinders, though, and it would last 4-6 weeks. Turning the helium bottle off was another way to get a tongue lashing from me as it was plumbed into things that really need constant low flow of helium.
One thing I was told a while back, and I've seen first hand, is that the valve on the bottle needs to be all the way open or all the way closed. Partially open can allow it to leak around the gland nut at the top.
I use to irritate people too over being a stickler for proper transport even to the other side of the lab. I'd see folks sometimes rolling one down the hall with the regulator hanging off of it. Transport is always done with the regulator removed and a cap installed, and ideally on a proper cart(for the big ones at least). Carts couldn't always get all the way to final destination(even in my own labs) but I'd take them as close as I could and not uncap or install the regulator until I had it secured in its final destination. Before I left that particular job, I'd even started switching some of the labs I was in charge of to wall-mount regulators with pigtails to avoid any movement with a full regulator hanging off(and more importantly avoid stressing the tubing on the other end of the regulator, which was copper for a lot of our applications), but that was expensive and I could only manage one or two a year.
If you see how the gas companies handle these, though, you see that maybe they have them in a warehouse or maybe under an awning. The small welding supply shop that sold me my argon at home has "cages" outside they keep the small ones in. It can be below zero or over 100 here, and they just keep on going. I know that typical full pressure for most gases is around 2200 psi if they're at roughly room temperature. Play with the numbers(you can use the Guy-Lussac law) and you'll see that even a hot day is going to go well below the proof temperature on one of these bottles. Chances are they'll still last 100+ years. I'm not exaggerating on that either-the next time you're around a bunch of them look at the proof markings and ones from the 40s are common. You won't have to look too long to find one from the 20s or 30s.
