Iwatani has developed a new cutting gas based on hydrogen called Hydrocut. It has recently set up a specialized filling facility for this gas at the Iwatani Industrial Gases plant in Himeji and has begun marketing.

This is a premixed gas composed of hydrogen and ethylene. Sold in medium sized seamless cylinders (47 liters, 14.7MPa), it can handle a wide range of acetylene gas applications, such as cutting and brazing steel materials, as well as heated and pressure welding. The reason that Iwatani became involved in the development of a new welding gas is that it was concerned about how to handle the acetylene market which had been declining year by year. Acetylene is an excellent cutting gas with a high volume of heat but with the decrease in public works construction, and the drop in orders for new ships, it is predicted that the tough demand situation surrounding this gas will continue. Iwatani, a producer of acetylene, has been shutting down and consolidating facilities as it strives to restructure this business. Nevertheless, these efforts can only go so far. Regarding replacement of worn out cylinders in particular, the company still needs to invest in new cylinders, even with no business recovery in sight. That this would be a major burden was a decisive factor leading to the decision to develop the new gas.

By switching over to this new cutting gas, seamless cylinders for regular industrial use can be used. This means that cylinder assets can be used efficiently. This is why the company has been working on developing this gas for the past 3 years.

There are several key points regarding this new gas. First, it has the same cutting capability as acetylene. Along with investigating the most suitable mixture ratio of hydrogen and ethylene, they also strove for stability of cutting performance on location. It was because of this that they decided on premixed gas at the filling stations. A patent has already been obtained.

One m3 of this gas has the same cutting capacity of 1 kg of acetylene. Because of this, one 47 liter cylinder can cope with the same amount of cutting as one existing acetylene cylinder of about 7.2kg. The new gas is just as convenient to use as acetylene. Regarding cost, a spokesman of the company noted, “Including the fee for the cylinder, and transportation costs, as well as the priced of the gas itself, we can supply the new gas to our users at a cost to them of less then that of acetylene.”