Safety Series: Torchcutting

Are your torchcutting safety procedures up to snuff? Read this collection of safe-and-smart burning tips and find out.

By Jim Fowler

Torchcutting, one of the oldest scrap processing methods, continues to fill a niche in the industry since it’s the only way to size and prepare certain types of material. The process is relatively simple, which can lead torchcutters to become complacent, even careless, during their burning work. It’s critical, therefore, for scrap managers and supervisors to have established torchcutting procedures to ensure burner safety. The challenge is to train burners to follow those procedures to the letter and make sure they understand the potential effects if they don’t.
   To assist with this training, ReMA produced a DVD last year titled Working Safe and Smart: Burner Safety. In its opening, the DVD stresses that “a single moment of inattention or a single shortcut in safety precautions can have disastrous consequences…. Working safely means paying attention to the details of what you do.”
Here’s a review of details to keep in mind to protect your burners and enhance your torchcutting operations.

Equipping for Safety
A burner’s clothes and accessories are a critical first step.
   At The David J. Joseph Co. (DJJ) (Cincinnati, Ohio), notes Scott McAlpine, corporate safety manager, the standard clothing and personal protective equipment (PPE) for burners includes:
• cotton work clothing that’s chemically treated for fire resistance;
• a hard hat;
• safety glasses and face shield, one of which is tinted to shade 5 (more on that later);
• steel-toed work boots with metatarsal guards to give the workers’ in-steps the same level of protection that’s provided for their toes;
• flame-resistant outerwear such as greens, aluminized garments, or similar products;
• leather or aluminized leggings that cover the boot laces;
• leather gloves that offer appropriate protection for the burner’s hands and wrists;
• hearing protection; and
• upper body protection appropriate for the task.
   R.J. Torching Inc. (Flint, Mich.), which specializes in torchcutting scrap, provides similar clothing and PPE to its burners, notes Jason Roughton, vice president. Among the essential items, he points to flame-retardant jackets with leather sleeves and Nomex hoods (like NASCAR drivers wear) that burners wear under their hard hats to keep the sparks off their necks. In addition, he says, “sometimes we cut a piece of leather and attach it to the back of the hard hat like a flap that also helps save the neck from burns.” On this topic, McAlpine notes that the respirators worn by DJJ’s burners have a helmet/facepiece/hood that protects the workers from any stray sparks.
   Related to clothing, the OSHA lead standard calls for weekly clothing changes unless the potential for lead exposure is high, when daily clothing changes are required. At DJJ, burners must also take showers at the end of a shift. “We’re charged with ensuring that employees shower before they leave the workplace,” McAlpine says. “We don’t want them to take lead home to their families.”
   As for eye protection, burners should wear safety glasses even though their hard hats are equipped with face shields. Occasionally, a burner needs to lift his shield, and safety glasses with side shields continue to provide eye protection. Shaded lenses are required since torching creates a light so bright it can damage the eye. OSHA guidelines, McAlpine says, call for shade 4 lenses if a burner is cutting material 1 to 6 inches thick and shade 5 lenses when cutting material more than 6 inches thick. “Our burners mostly cut thinner material,” he notes, “but by wearing shade 5 lenses, they’re protected when they cut the occasional piece of scrap that’s six inches or more.”
   Another critical piece of safety equipment is a respirator, which can protect burners from health hazards such as lead fumes generated while cutting painted metal. According to McAlpine, his test data show that material purchased over the scale or from industrial sources can contain some combination of lead, cadmium, and/or arsenic. “We always run into these three,” he says. “In a typical torchcutting operation where we’re cutting miscellaneous scrap, our experience is that the OSHA limits for lead, cadmium, and arsenic will be exceeded. As a result, whenever we’re cutting this type of material, we have a lead, cadmium, and arsenic exposure control plan in place that combines the requirements for each of those OSHA standards.” 
   In addition, if your burners are cutting terne plate, galvanized plate, chromium, beryllium, magnesium, nickel, or zinc, they must wear a respirator. If you’re not sure, check the material safety data sheet for material being torched.
   Burners at DJJ use a powered air purifying respirator (PAPR), McAlpine notes. This respirator is a belt-mounted turbo unit with a fan that draws in air from the small of the burner’s back. The air passes through a filter in a tube that goes up the burner’s back and into a head piece that’s a combination hard hat/face shield with some shrouding for a tight fit. With this respirator, “the burner experiences a cascade of clean air from the top of the helmet, across his face, and out,” he says.
   Whatever type of respirator you use, check that it’s equipped with the correct filter cartridge and make sure your burners know how to put the mask on for a tight fit so there are no leaks around the face seal.
   Another important piece of safety equipment is a fire extinguisher. Chuck Pielet, general foreman of Gaby Iron & Metal Co. (Chicago Heights, Ill.), says he always has an ABC-type extinguisher on hand wherever his burners are working. At DJJ, McAlpine notes, “we use pressurized water extinguishers that we can refill and charge ourselves. Most of our fires are regular combustible materials so water works fine, and it also works on people.”
   DJJ makes sure extinguishers are within 50 feet of its torchcutters. The company also has dunk tanks—large water-filled troughs—nearby, McAlpine says, “so that if a burner gets in real trouble he can jump in the tank and extinguish a fire on his clothing.”
Knowing the Equipment 
   Once your burners are outfitted with the proper work clothes and safety gear, the next consideration in your safety program is the torchcutting equipment itself.
Gas Basics: Propane—the predominant fuel used for torchcutting in the scrap industry—is one of nature’s most flammable gases and, when combined with oxygen, makes anything it touches—even dirt—extremely flammable. As
an initial safety step, make sure the propane and oxygen cylinders are chained securely in place and separated by a steel shield.
Setup Procedures: You should have procedures that burners must follow as they set up their work station to begin torchcutting. ISRI’s Burner Safety DVD provides a step-by-step look at correct and safe procedures—from valve assembly to lighting up—so consult that resource in your training efforts.
Pressure: Burners must understand the importance of correct pressure settings. David Pryor, engineering lab manager for Victor Equipment Co. (Denton, Texas), maintains that burners “often ignore the manufacturers’ recommended pressure settings for the cutting tip they’re using. Most burners believe that the more oxygen pressure provided, the more the torch will cut. That is completely untrue.”
   As Pryor explains, the manufacturers’ recommended pressures were established by tests to find the optimum operating pressure for each tip. Using more than the recommended pressure wastes gas. Plus, when extremely high pressures are used, there’s a greater risk for leaks to occur. “Operating the torch at elevated pressures puts additional stress on the hoses, which can reduce their life and create a potential hazard if one of the hoses ruptures,” Pryor says.
   At some point, if the system is overpressurized, all the gas and all the pressure being sent down the torch to the tip won’t be able to get out of the tip. That can cause reverse-flow conditions that can lead to flashback, notes John Lyons, regional sales manager for Harris Calorific Inc. (Powell, Ohio).
Just as too much pressure is bad, too little pressure is also detrimental, he says, because “it will starve the torch, and the flame will try to burn back into the torch. If a burner starves the system, the flame starts burning inside the tip and could melt the tip down or create a flashback.”
Leaks: The number-one cause of accidents related to torchcutting equipment, says Lyons, is a leak in the system, either in the hoses or at the connections between the regulator and the hoses or between the hoses and the torch. 
When oxygen is leaking, he notes, it tends to leak on the burner’s clothes, saturating them with pure oxygen and making them extremely flammable. “A spark from the torch, or someone lighting a cigarette, can literally engulf the burner’s clothing in flames,” he says. “Oxygen enrichment is probably the biggest accident I see occurring.”
To prevent such accidents, burners should leak-test their systems every day, Lyons advises.
Hoses: Do you know what grade of hose you’re using for your torchcutting equipment? Using the wrong grade of hose is a major problem in the scrap industry, says Pryor. Dual welding hose is offered in three grades—R and RM hoses are for acetylene use only, while T is for use with all fuel gases, propane in particular. The material used for the inner tube in R and RM hoses is not compatible with LP gases and can prematurely fail when used with propane. “Most often,” Pryor says, “an operator will purchase the cheapest hose available, which will typically be Grade R hose. Grade T hose is generally more expensive.” Despite the cost, Grade T hose should be used for propane torchcutting in scrapyards, he asserts.

Minding Maintenance 
Periodic equipment inspections and maintenance are essential to achieving safe torchcutting operations.
   Regulators, for one, “do not have an infinite service life,” Pryor says. Materials used in the regulators degrade, causing them to leak or fail to shut off properly. (For information on inspecting and servicing regulators, consult the Compressed Gas Association’s E-15 guidance document. Visit www.cganet.com and click on Publications, then Equipment.)
   Also, because scrapyards are harsh environments, hoses should be inspected frequently for cuts, burns, and abrasions. “Grime from grease and oils can often coat hoses and conceal these potential problems,” Pryor says. Hoses can be repaired with splices, he notes, but careful consideration should be given to flow restrictions. Splices can reduce gas flow, causing torches to overheat and possibly backfire.
   Safety devices such as flashback arrestors and check valves should be inspected periodically to ensure that they are functioning properly, Pryor suggests. “Flashback arrestors can become clogged from debris in the hoses,” he notes. “If the burner notices a difference in the performance of the torch, such as less flow, there’s a good chance the arrestors have become clogged and should be replaced.”
   Also be aware that check valves can become contaminated by debris, causing them to become inoperable. The key point, Pryor asserts, is that “any safety device will never take the place of proper operation and maintenance of oxy-fuel equipment.”
   As for other warning signs, continual backfiring is an indication that something is wrong with the torch, Pryor says, advising burners to check their torches frequently for leaks. It’s particularly important to check the tip seats on the torch head for proper sealing. If the seats are leaking, the torch should be sent to a repair technician who can resurface the tip seating surfaces in the head, he says.

Staying Out of Danger
According to Scott McAlpine, trips and falls are among the most frequent accidents in his torchcutting crew. “We find it’s hard to keep the burning area smooth, and there are inherent problems with scrap staged to be cut or having been cut in the area,” he notes. “When you’re handling scrap and pulling it in and out of an area, you tend to dig up the ground, which creates an uneven surface.” It’s not uncommon, therefore, for burners to trip on the irregular surface or over scrap staged in the area.
   The cranes used to arrange scrap for torchcutting can play a role in preventing burner accidents, notes Jason Roughton. In many scrap operations, a crane spreads out scrap to be torchcut then leaves to feed a baler or load a truck. “This results in a mess for the burner,” Roughton says.
   In contrast, his company has crane operators who work exclusively with the burners, tailoring the movement
of scrap to what the burner is doing. “Our cranes make three or four spreads a day, sort the piles, and leave ample walking space around the pieces, all of which helps the burner do a better, safer job,” he states. “You don’t have a bunch of scrap sitting around. Clutter doesn’t build up in the work area.”
   Torchcutters can also be injured by scrap that falls or rolls on them after being cut. This is especially a problem when a burner works in a new environment or cuts unfamiliar metal. “He’ll cut a piece that he doesn’t think is going anywhere, then suddenly it rolls back and breaks his leg,” says Roughton. At one scrap operation, a burner was torchcutting a roll-off container, not following the proper procedure of cutting small pieces. Instead, he cut out the whole side of the container, which fell on him. In the end, his worst injuries were the burns he sustained from his torch.
   It’s also crucial for torchcutters to have a healthy respect for the potential dangers of the oxygen they use. “You can’t overemphasize that,” McAlpine says.
   As he notes, burners will blow themselves off with the oxygen in their torches. Because the oxygen comes out cool, sometimes they fill their clothing with it, saturating the cloth. If a spark hits the cloth, it will ignite—whether it’s flame-resistant or not—and engulf the burner in flames. “So we tell our burners, ‘Don’t blow yourselves off with your torch,’” McAlpine says.
   Offering other torchcutting safety advice, scrap managers say burners should:
• minimize their sparks when working with other torchcutters in small spaces;
• refrain from climbing or standing on scrap being cut;
• avoid working in closed vessels and tanks. “Those are the most dangerous things you can encounter when you’re torching,” Chuck Pielet says. “We tell our burners, ‘If you’re not sure, don’t touch it’”; and
• never work alone. DJJ, for one, uses a buddy system because it “never wants a torchcutter working by himself,” says McAlpine.
   Enforcing burner safety procedures can be a challenge for managers and supervisors, in part because torchcutters “sometimes think they’re indestructible—until something happens to them,” Roughton states. This advice—as well as safety resources like ISRI’s Burner Safety DVD—can help prevent that “something” from happening. 
Jim Fowler is retired publisher and editorial director of Scrap.

Publisher’s Note: ReMA mailed a complimentary copy of the Working Safe and Smart: Burner Safety DVD to all member companies last year. To order additional copies, visit the ReMA Store at www.isri.org or call 202/737-1770. The DVD costs $50 for ReMA members, $150 for nonmembers.