Gases play a major role in many industries today, such as energy and manufacturing. Natural gas, for example, is among the most energy-efficient of all the fossil fuels, and is often drilled and mined on the sea floor. And that’s not all. Many work sites call for the use of pressurized, pure gas in disposable cylinders, and this may range from pressurized oxygen or nitrogen for welding all the way to the gases used in laser cutting heads at a factory. However, it is possible for the gas in these disposable cylinders to be faulty, such as suffering an impurity that compromises the gas’s function. When that happens, a workplace manager may want to compare the contents of these disposable cylinders with disposable calibration gas. To that end, many worksite managers may have a working relationship with local calibration gas suppliers. When is it time to get these disposable cylinders of calibration gas, and what is there to know about industrial-grade gases in general?
Gases at the Workplace
As mentioned earlier, many manufacturing jobs make use of pressurized and pure gases for work. Welding, for example, involves a blowtorch that is emitting flames generated from certain gases, and the metals being worked on call for different sorts of gases. A welder may have access to several different gas types at the workplace ranging from nitrogen to oxygen and beyond. What is more, many factories now use laser-cutting technology, when thin but focused laser beams heat up and slice metal or wooden materials as an alternative to saws. Such laser-cutter heads need special gases in them, however, to make them work. No gas, no laser cutting.
Gas is also quite a power source, such as natural gas. This energy source is a popular one among the fossil fuels, and it’s being used more than ever. Many statistics show how widely it’s used, and its usage is due to increase in the coming years. In fact, 25% of all primary energy used in the U.S. comes from this gas, and around 66.7 million American homes are powered with it. A person’s kitchen may feature a gas-powered stove, for example. What is more, around 5.4 million American businesses are powered with this gas, too. The industry of mining, purifying, and transporting this gas employs nearly three million Americans, and the global market for this gas is growing 2% per year and may overtake coal’s demand by 2030. This gas is quite efficient, often boasting a 92% energy efficiency rating. But what should a worker do when gas is faulty?
Using Calibration Gas
At a work site, pure and pressurized industrial gases are delivered in disposable cylinders for use, and such cylinders are clearly labeled and have nozzles on them. This is standard procedure. The problem is when the gas inside is compromised, and its purity may be in question. Workers at a site may notice that their equipment’s efficiency and function are suffering, and faulty gas may be to blame. In this case, the workers need a control group, and calibration gas can help.
Some companies are known to manufacture calibration gas and sell it wholesale to businesses who use pure gases for their work. Calibration gas is the same sort used at worksites, except the producers are very careful to make this gas as pure as possible so that it’s useful as a control group. Problems may arise if the calibration gas needs calibration gas of its own. Such gas has impeccably high purity, and thus a suspected canister of gas at a workplace may be compared to it. The workers will order the calibration gas canister, and once it arrives, use both canisters for a job. The difference in performance may diagnose a faulty workplace gas canister, and the workers may then send that faulty gas canister back to the manufacturer and order a new one. After all, some workplace applications have extremely demanding standards of gas purity. Even the most lax requirements may call for 99.99% pure gas, and the purest gas may boast an incredible 99.9999% purity. Workers can’t afford to have that gas become impure, so calibration gas will sniff out a defective canister that can’t offer the necessary gas purity.
