The gas burner temperature is 500 degrees. Blowtorch flame temperature performance

The current generation of left-handed people rarely use a blowtorch, preferring an electric industrial hair dryer or a gas torch, which are much easier and safer to use. But even 40-50 years ago, a blowtorch was in almost every home workshop of a locksmith or car enthusiast, since it was the only tool capable of heating various materials to the desired temperature.

The blowtorch burns gasoline in the nozzle, giving out a fairly large jet of open flame.

But it is still not worth putting a blowtorch into junk in our age of scientific and technological progress. For example, it is almost impossible to ignite a gas burner in severe frost. With an industrial hair dryer, the situation is no better: it needs a constant source of electricity to work. And an old blowtorch does not care about all these difficulties.

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The principle of combustion in a blowtorch

The blowtorch is a heating device that runs on liquid fuel. Its peculiarity is that in the working tool, the burner, vapors of the fuel filled into the lamp burn, and not the fuel itself. Entering the burner at a high speed, the jet of such vapors sucks in the air around the burner, thereby providing itself with a sufficient amount of oxygen.
This self-sufficiency is very important, since a certain amount of oxygen is required for complete combustion of 1 kg of liquid hydrocarbon-based fuel. In this case, complete combustion will be achieved, after which only carbon dioxide and water will remain from the fuel.

But if you just ignite a liquid fuel, such as gasoline, in an open container, it will not completely burn out. This is indicated by the orange-red flames of such burning centers, moreover, with a fair amount of soot. But if air is artificially injected into such a combustion center, then the flame from orange-red will turn blue, practically without soot, and its temperature will increase significantly. Oxygen in the air will cause these changes.

It is the principle of artificial enrichment of the flame with air, borrowed from gas lamps (so-called horns), that is the basis for the operation of a blowtorch. Moreover, such an air supply is regulated spontaneously: fuel vapors enter the burner, and the greater the intake, the more powerful the jet will be and, accordingly, the more air it will draw into itself.

Sometimes it happens that the jet draws in too much air, and the oxygen does not have time to completely burn out. In this case, the combustion temperature decreases markedly, since the excess air passing through the burner cools it. However, this only happens when using low-quality fuel. With normal filling of the burner with fuel vapor, it is impossible to draw in excess air into it for purely physical reasons.

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Blowtorch fuels

The versatility of a blowtorch is that it can work on almost any flammable liquid fuel: alcohol, kerosene, gasoline, diesel fuel, oil. But this does not mean at all that anything can be poured into each blowtorch.

Fuel must be of high quality. In addition, it must be borne in mind that an unsuitable type of fuel will very quickly clog the nozzle with its vapors. Today there are three types of blowtorches:

kerosene;

gasoline;

alcoholic.

The principle of a blowtorch has been preserved in the operation of a gas burner, therefore, some specialized sources also refer this device to blowtorches, highlighting it as a separate, fourth, type.

Refueling the lamp with another type of fuel that does not correspond to its design is strictly prohibited by the safety instructions. And this rule must be strictly observed. After all, kerosene poured into a gasoline soldering iron will make it a tool like a flamethrower. Getting into the burner, it will not have time to completely evaporate, therefore, not the vapors will burn, but the kerosene itself. Such a tool will not work normally.

It is even more dangerous to pour gasoline into a kerosene blowtorch. Gasoline evaporates much faster than kerosene, and its vapor pressure in the burner will be 6 times higher than the calculated one. When attempting to ignite, the vapors will explode, turning a useful tool into a dangerous bomb. Therefore, if you use a kerosene blowtorch, you need to fill it only with pure kerosene, without any impurities, without using mixtures of kerosene with gasoline or other fuels.

The situation is the same with a gasoline blowtorch. It should only be filled with clean gasoline. At the same time, the octane number of gasoline has practically no effect on the operation of the tool: neither on the speed of ignition, nor on the burning time, nor on the temperature of the flame. But when choosing a brand of gasoline, one should not forget that low-octane brands of various additives and impurities are much less, therefore, during operation, the nozzle will become much less dirty.

Alcohol blowtorches have a small reservoir volume (only 200-300 ml), respectively, its combustion is very limited in time, so today craftsmen prefer to use gas burners instead.

The purpose of this article is to tell you how to make a do-it-yourself gas burner. Gas burners in small businesses, individual technical creativity and in everyday life are used very widely for adhesive, metalwork and blacksmithing, roofing, jewelry work, for starting heating appliances on gas and obtaining a flame with a temperature of over 1500 degrees for various needs.

In the technological aspect, a gas flame is good in that it has a high reducing ability (it cleans the metal surface from impurities and reduces its oxide to pure metal), without showing any noticeably different chemical activity.

In heat engineering - gas is a highly energy-intensive, relatively inexpensive and clean fuel; As a rule, 1 GJ of gas heat costs less than from any other energy carrier, and coking of gas heaters and the deposition of soot in them is minimal or absent.

But at the same time, let's repeat the common truth: they don't joke with gas. A gas burner is not so complicated, but how to achieve its efficiency and safety - this will be discussed further. With examples of correct technical execution and recommendations for making yourself.

Choosing gas

Only a gas burner using propane, butane or a propane-butane mixture is made with our own hands, those. on gaseous saturated hydrocarbons and atmospheric air. When using 100% isobutane (see below), it is possible to reach a flame temperature of up to 2000 degrees.

Acetylene allows you to get a flame temperature of up to 3000 degrees, but due to its danger, the high cost of calcium carbide and the need for pure oxygen as an oxidizing agent, it has practically gone out of use in welding. It is possible to obtain pure hydrogen at home; the hydrogen flame from a forced draft burner (see below) gives a temperature of up to 2500 degrees. But the raw materials for producing hydrogen are expensive and unsafe (one of the components is a strong acid), but the main thing is that hydrogen is not perceptible to the smell and taste, there is no point in adding mercaptan flavor to it, because hydrogen is more likely to spread by an order of magnitude, and its admixture to air in only 4% already gives an explosive oxyhydrogen gas, and its ignition can occur simply in the light.

Methane not used in domestic gas burners for similar reasons; in addition, it is highly poisonous. As for the vapors of flammable liquids, pyrolysis gases and biogas, when burned in gas burners, they give a not very clean flame with a temperature below 1100 degrees. Flammable liquids of medium and below average volatility (from gasoline to fuel oil) are burned in special liquid burners, for example, in burners for diesel fuel; alcohols - in low-power flame devices, and ethers do not burn at all - are low-energy, but very dangerous.

How to achieve safety

To make a gas burner safe to operate and not devouring fuel in vain, the golden rule should be taken: no scaling and no changes to the prototype drawings at all!

Here the point is in the so-called. Reynolds number Re, showing the relationship between the flow rate, density, viscosity of the flowing medium and the characteristic size of the area in which it moves, for example. cross-sectional diameter of the pipe. Re can be used to judge the presence of turbulence in the flow and its nature. If, for example, the pipe is not round and both of its characteristic dimensions are greater than a certain critical value, then vortices of the 2nd and higher orders will appear. Physically distinguished walls of the "pipe" may not exist, for example, in sea currents, but many of their "foci" are explained precisely by the transition of Re through the critical values.

Note: just in case, for reference - for gases the value of the Reynolds number at which the laminar flow becomes turbulent is Re> 2000 (in SI).

Not all homemade gas burners are accurately calculated according to the laws of gas dynamics. But, if you arbitrarily change the dimensions of the parts of a successful design, then Re of the fuel or sucked air can jump beyond the limits that it adhered to in the author's product, and the burner will become smoky and gluttonous at best, and, quite possibly, dangerous.

Injector diameter

The defining parameter for the quality of a gas burner is the cross-sectional diameter of its fuel injector (gas nozzle, nozzle, jet - synonyms). For propane-butane burners at normal temperature (1000-1300 degrees), it can be roughly taken as follows:

For thermal power up to 100 W - 0.15-0.2 mm.
For a power of 100-300 W - 0.25-0.35 mm.
For a power of 300-500 W - 0.35-0.45 mm.
For a power of 500-1000 W - 0.45-0.6 mm.
For a power of 1-3 kW - 0.6-0.7 mm.
For a power of 3-7 kW - 0.7-0.9 mm.
For a power of 7-10 kW - 0.9-1.1 mm.

In high-temperature burners, the injectors are made narrower, 0.06-0.15 mm. An excellent material for the injector is a piece of a needle for a medical syringe or dropper; from them you can choose a nozzle for any of the indicated diameters. The needles for inflating balls are worse, they are not heat-resistant. They are used more as air ducts in supercharged microburners, see below. In the holder (capsule) of the injector, it is sealed with hard solder or glued with heat-resistant glue (cold welding).

Power

In no case should you make a gas burner with a power of more than 10 kW. Why? Let's say the burner efficiency is 95%; for an amateur design, this is a very good indicator. If the burner power is 1 kW, then 50 W will be spent on self-heating of the burner. A 50 W soldering iron can burn yourself, but it does not threaten an accident. But if you make a 20 kW burner, then 1 kW will be superfluous, this is an iron or an electric stove already left unattended. The danger is aggravated by the fact that its manifestation, like the Reynolds numbers, is threshold - either simply hot, or flares up, melts, explodes. Therefore, it is better not to look for drawings of a home-made burner for more than 7-8 kW.

Note: industrial gas burners are produced for power up to many MW, but this is achieved by accurate profiling of the gas barrel, which is impossible at home; see one example below.

Armature

The third factor that determines the safety of the burner is the composition of its fittings and the procedure for using it. In general, the scheme is as follows:

The burner must in no case be extinguished with a regulating valve, the fuel supply is stopped with a valve on the cylinder;
For burners with a capacity of up to 500-700 W and high-temperature (with a narrow injector, excluding the transition of the gas flow Re beyond the critical value), fed with propane or isobutane from a cylinder of up to 5 liters at an external temperature of up to 30 degrees, it is permissible to combine the control and shut-off valves in one - standard on the cylinder;
In burners with a power of more than 3 kW (with a wide injector), or powered from a cylinder of more than 5 liters, the probability of a "breakthrough" of Re for 2000 is very high. Therefore, in such burners, between the shut-off and control valves, a reducer is required, which maintains the pressure in the supply gas pipeline within certain limits.

Which one to do?

Low-power gas burners for everyday life and small-scale private production are classified according to performance indicators. way:

High-temperature - for precision welding, jewelry and glass-blowing work. Efficiency is not important, you need to achieve the maximum flame temperature for a given fuel.
Technological - for locksmith and blacksmith work. The flame temperature is highly desirable not lower than 1200 degrees, and subject to this condition, the burner is brought to maximum efficiency.
Heating and roofing - achieve the best efficiency. Flame temperatures are typically up to 1100 degrees or below.

Regarding the method of fuel combustion, a gas burner can be performed according to one of the following. schemes:

Free atmospheric.
Atmospheric ejection.
Supercharged.

Atmospheric

In free-atmosphere burners, the gas burns in free space; air flow is provided by free convection. Such burners are uneconomical, the flame is red, smoky, dancing and beating. They are of interest, firstly, because any other burner can be switched to free-atmospheric mode by excessive gas supply or insufficient air. It is in it that the burners are set on fire - at a minimum of fuel supply and even less air flow. Secondly, the free flow of secondary air can be very useful in the so-called. one-and-a-half-circuit burners for heating, because greatly simplifies their design without sacrificing safety, see below.

Ejection

In ejection burners, at least 40% of the air required for fuel combustion is sucked in by the gas flow from the injector. Ejection burners are structurally simple and allow you to get a flame with a temperature of up to 1500 degrees with an efficiency of over 95%, therefore they are used most widely, but cannot be modulated, see below. By the use of air, ejection burners are divided into:

Single-circuit - all the necessary air is sucked in at once. With a properly profiled gas duct at a power of more than 10 kW, they show an efficiency of over 99%. Not repeatable with our own hands.
Double-circuit - approx. 50% of the air is sucked in by the injector, the rest into the combustion chamber and / or afterburner. They allow you to get either a flame at 1300-1500 degrees, or CPL over 95% and a flame up to 1200 degrees. Used in any of the above ways. Structurally, they are quite complex, but repeatable on their own.
One-and-a-half-circuit, often also called double-circuit - the primary air is sucked in by the flow from the injector, and the secondary air freely enters a limited volume (for example, the furnace of a furnace), in which the fuel burns out. Only single-mode (see below), but structurally simple, therefore they are widely used for temporary start-up of heating furnaces and gas boilers.

Supercharged

In forced draft burners, all air, both primary and secondary, is forced into the combustion zone. The simplest supercharged microburner for tabletop welding, jewelry, and glass work can be self-made (see below), but making a supercharged heating burner requires a solid manufacturing base. But it is the forced draft burners that make it possible to realize all the possibilities of controlling the combustion mode; according to the terms of use, they are divided into:

Single-mode;
Dual-mode;
Modulated.

Combustion control

In single-mode burners, the fuel combustion mode is either determined once and for all constructively (for example, in industrial burners for annealing furnaces), or set manually, for which the burner must either be extinguished, or the technological cycle must be interrupted with its use. Dual-mode burners generally operate at full or half power. The transition from mode to mode is carried out in the course of work or use. Heating (winter - spring / autumn) or roof burners are made dual-mode.

In modulating burners, the supply of fuel and air is smoothly and continuously regulated by the automation, which operates according to a set of critical initial parameters. For example, for a heating burner - according to the ratio of temperatures in the room, outdoor and heating medium in the return. There can be one output parameter (minimum gas consumption, maximum flame temperature) or there can be several of them too, for example, at the flame temperature near the upper limit, the fuel consumption is minimized, and when it falls, the temperature is optimized for the given technological process.

Examples of constructions

Understanding the designs of gas burners, we will go along the path of increasing power, this will allow us to better understand the material. And from the very beginning, let's get acquainted with such an important circumstance as boost.

Mini spray can

It is well known how a single-mode mini gas burner for desktop work powered by a can for refueling lighters works: these are 2 needles inserted into each other, pos. And in the figure:

Pressurization - from the aquarium compressor. Since it gives a noticeably pulsating flow without the resistance of the atomizer under water, a receiver of 5 liters of tanklage is needed. Soda is not produced in these, so the receiver plug will need to be additionally sealed with raw rubber, silicone or just plasticine. If you take a compressor for an aquarium of 600 liters or more, and the fuel is 100% isobutane (such cans are more expensive than conventional ones), you can get a flame over 1500 degrees.

The stumbling blocks when repeating this design are, firstly, the gas supply adjustment. There are no problems with air - its supply is set by the standard compressor regulator. But adjusting the gas by kinking the hose is very coarse, and the regulator from the dropper quickly fails, it is also disposable with it. Secondly, the pairing of the burner with the cartridge - in order for its valve to open, you need to push on the filling nozzle

The first one, the node shown in pos. B; make it from the same pair of needles. First, you need to pick up a piece of tubing for the sleeve, with a little effort fit on the nozzle of the can, and then, also with little effort, push it into the cannula of the needle; it may need to be reamed a little. But the sleeve should not be loose either on the fitting or in the cannula separately.

Then we make a holder for a can with an adjusting screw (pos. B), insert the can, put the regulator on the fitting according to pos. B, and turn the screw until the required gas supply is obtained. The adjustment is very precise, literally microscopic.

Soldering torches

The easiest way to make a soldering torch is approx. by 0.5-1 kW, if you have any gas valve available: an oxygen valve of the VK series, from an old autogen (the acetylene barrel is muffled), etc. One of the options for the design of a gas valve-based soldering torch is shown in Fig.

Its feature is the minimum number of chiseled parts, and even those can be selected ready-made, and there are ample opportunities for adjusting the flame by moving the nozzle 11. The material of parts 7-12 is quite heat-resistant steel; in this case, the relatively inexpensive St45 is suitable, since the flame temperature due to the complete absence of profiling of the gas channel and ejector windows (which, as such, do not exist) will not exceed 800-900 degrees. Also, due to the fact that this burner is single-circuit, it is rather gluttonous.

Double-circuit

A two-circuit gas burner for brazing is much more economical and allows you to get a flame up to 1200-1300 degrees. Examples of structures of this kind fed from a 5 liter cylinder are given in Fig.

Burner on the left - for an output of approx. 1 kW, therefore it consists of only 3 parts, not counting the gas barrel and the handle, so that a separate valve is not required for flame regulation. If desired, you can make replaceable injector capsules for lower powers; fuel consumption at low power levels will drop quite noticeably. The simplicity of the design in this case was achieved thanks to the use of a scheme with incomplete separation of the air circuits: all the air is sucked in through the holes in the housing, but part of it is carried away by the burning gas jet through a hole with a diameter of 12 mm into the afterburner.

Incomplete separation of the air circuits does not allow reaching a power of more than 1.2-1.3 kW: Re in the combustion chamber jumps "above the roof", which is why it starts burning with pops up to an explosion, if you try to adjust the flame by giving gas. Therefore, without experience, it is better to put an injector into this burner 0.3-0.4 mm.

A burner with complete separation of air circuits, drawings of which are given on the right in the figure, develops power up to several kW. Therefore, in its fittings, in addition to the shut-off valve on the cylinder, an adjustment valve is also needed. Together with a sliding primary ejector, it allows regulating the flame temperature within a fairly wide range, maintaining its minimum flow rate at a given power. In practice, setting the flame of the desired strength with the valve, move the primary ejector until a narrow blue stream (very hot) or wide yellowish (not so hot) goes.

For forge and forge

The fully split double-circuit burner is also suitable for blacksmiths. For example, how to build a furnace from scrap materials for the one just described in 10-15 minutes, see the video:

Video: gas horn in 10 minutes

A fitter's and blacksmith's gas burner specially for a forge can also be built according to a full two-circuit scheme, see next. video clip.

Video: do-it-yourself gas burner for a forge

And finally, a mini gas burner can also heat a small tabletop furnace; how to make them together yourself, see:

Video: DIY mini-horn at home

For fine work

Here in fig. given drawings of a gas burner with a built-in control valve for particularly precise and demanding work. Its feature is a massive combustion chamber with cooling fins. Due to this, firstly, thermal deformations of the burner parts are reduced. Secondly, random surges in gas and air supply practically do not affect the temperature in the combustion chamber. As a result, the installed flame is very stable for a long time.

High temperature

Finally, consider a burner designed to produce a flame of the highest possible temperature - 100% isobutane without pressurization, this burner gives a flame with a temperature of more than 1500 degrees - cuts sheet steel, melts any jewelry alloys in a mini-crucible and softens any silicate glass, except quartz glass. A good injector for this torch comes from an insulin syringe needle.

Heating

If you plan to transfer your old stove or boiler from wood-coal to gas once and for all, then you have no other choice but to purchase a modulating blower burner, pos. 1 in fig. Otherwise, any savings on homemade products will soon be eaten away by excessive fuel consumption.

In the case when a power of more than 12-15 kW is required for heating and, in addition, there is a person who is ready and able to take on the duties of a stoker, regulating the gas supply in accordance with the outside temperature, a cheaper option would be a two-circuit atmospheric burner for the boiler, the device diagram of which is given in pos ... 2. The so-called. Saratov burners, pos. 3; they are produced for a wide range of capacities, and have been successfully used in heating engineering for a long time.

If you need to hold out on gas for some time, for example, until the end of the heating season, and then start the reconstruction of the heating system, or start on gas, for example, a country or sauna stove, then for this you can make a one-and-a-half-circuit gas burner for ovens. A diagram of its structure and operation is given in pos. 4. An indispensable condition - the furnace of the heater must be with a blower: if you let the secondary air into the gap between the mouth of the furnace and the burner body, the fuel consumption will increase significantly. A drawing of a one-and-a-half-circuit gas burner for a furnace with a capacity of up to 10-12 kW is given at pos. 5; oblong openings for primary air intake must be outside!

Roofing

A gas burner for roofing works with modern fused materials (roofing lamp) must be performed in a two-mode mode: at half power, the underlying surface is heated, and at full power, the coating is fused after unrolling the roll. Delay is unacceptable here, therefore, it is impossible to waste time on readjusting the burner (which is possible only after it has cooled down).

The device of a roofing gas burner of industrial production is shown on the left in Fig. It is double-circuit according to the scheme with incomplete separation of the contours. In this case, such a solution is permissible, since the burner operates at full power for approx. 20% of the cycle time and is operated by trained personnel outdoors.

The most difficult unit of a roofing lamp, which is hardly repeatable at home, is the power switching valve. However, it is possible to do without it at the cost of a slight increase in fuel consumption. If you are an all-rounder and do roofing work sporadically, then the decrease in profitability due to this will not be noticeable.

Technically, this solution is feasible in a burner with coupled pairs of air circuits, see on the right in fig. The transition from mode to mode is carried out either by installing / removing the body of the internal circuits, or simply by moving the lamp in height, because the operating mode of such a burner is highly dependent on the back pressure at the exhaust. To warm up the underlying surface, the lamp is taken away from it, then a powerful wide stream of not excessively hot gases will go from the nozzle. And for surfacing, the lamp is brought closer: a wide "pancake" of the flame will spread over the roofing material.

Finally

This article discusses only selected examples of gas burners. The total number of their designs only for the "home" power range up to 15-20 kW is in the hundreds, if not thousands. But let's hope that you will find some of the ones described here useful.

The temperature of the fire makes us see familiar things in a new light - a white match flashing, the blue glow of a gas stove burner in the kitchen, orange-red tongues above a burning tree. A person does not pay attention to the fire until the tips of his fingers are burned. Or he won't burn the potatoes in the pan. Or it won't burn through the soles of sneakers drying over a fire.

When the first pain, fear and disappointment pass, the time for philosophical reflection comes. About nature, colors, temperature of fire.

Burns like a match

Briefly about the structure of the match. It consists of a stick and a head. Sticks are made of wood, cardboard and paraffin-impregnated cotton tow. The tree is chosen soft species - poplar, pine, aspen. Raw materials for sticks are called match sticks. To avoid smoldering the straw, the sticks are impregnated with phosphoric acid. Russian factories make aspen straw.

The head of a match is simple in shape, but complex in chemical composition. The dark brown head of the match contains seven components: oxidizing agents - Berthollet's salt and potassium dichromate; glass dust, red lead, sulfur, zinc white.

The head of a match ignites during friction, heating up to one and a half thousand degrees. Flammable threshold, in degrees Celsius:

poplar - 468;
aspen - 612;
pine - 624.

The fire temperature of the match is therefore the white flash of the sulfur head is replaced by the yellow-orange tongue of the match.

If you look closely at a burning match, you will see three zones of flame. The bottom one is cold blue. Average one and a half times warmer. The top is the hot zone.

Fiery artist

At the word “fire” no less vividly nostalgic memories flare up: the smoke of the fire, creating a confidential atmosphere; red and yellow lights flying towards the ultramarine sky; play of reeds from blue to ruby red; crimson cooling coals in which "pioneer" potatoes are baked.

The changing color of the burning wood indicates fluctuations in the temperature of the fire in the fire. Wood smoldering (darkening) starts at 150 °. Ignition (smoke) occurs in the range of 250-300 °. With the same oxygen supply to the rock at mismatching temperatures. Accordingly, the degree of the fire will also differ. Birch burns at 800 degrees, alder at 522 degrees, and ash and beech at 1040 degrees.

But the color of the fire is also determined by the chemical composition of the burning substance. Yellow and orange contribute sodium salts. The chemical composition of cellulose contains both sodium and potassium salts, which give the burning wood coals a red hue. Romance in a wood fire occurs due to a lack of oxygen, when instead of CO 2, CO is formed - carbon monoxide.

Science enthusiasts measure the temperature of a fire in a campfire with an instrument called a pyrometer. Three types of pyrometers are produced: optical, radiation, spectral. These are non-contact devices that allow evaluating the power of thermal radiation.

Exploring fire in our own kitchen

Gas stoves run on two types of fuel:

Main natural gas methane.
Propane-butane liquefied mixture from cylinders and gas tanks.

The chemical composition of the fuel determines the temperature of the gas stove fire. Methane, burning, forms a fire with a capacity of 900 degrees at the highest point.

Burning a liquefied mixture gives heat up to 1950 °.

An attentive observer will note the uneven coloring of the tongues of the gas stove burner. Inside the fiery torch, there is a division into three zones:

Dark area located near the burner: there is no combustion here due to lack of oxygen, and the zone temperature is 350 °.
A bright area lying in the center of the torch: the burning gas heats up to 700 °, but the fuel does not burn completely due to the lack of an oxidizer.
Semi-transparent upper section: reaches 900 ° C, and full combustion of the gas.

The figures for the temperature zones of the flame torch are given for methane.

Fire safety rules

When lighting matches, a stove, take care of the ventilation of the room. Provide oxygen supply to the fuel.

Do not try to repair gas equipment yourself. Gas does not tolerate amateurs.

Housewives note that the burners glow blue, but sometimes the fire turns orange. This is not a global change in temperature. The color change is associated with a change in the composition of the fuel. Pure methane burns colorless and odorless. For safety reasons, sulfur is added to the household gas, which, when burned, turns the gas blue and imparts a characteristic odor to the combustion products.

The appearance of orange and yellow tints in the burner fire indicates the need for preventive manipulations with the stove. Craftsmen will clean the equipment, remove dust and soot, the combustion of which changes the usual color of fire.

Sometimes the fire in the burner turns red. This is a signal of a dangerous content of carbon monoxide in the Oxygen supply to the fuel is so small that the stove even goes out. Carbon monoxide is tasteless and odorless, and a person near the source of the emission of a harmful substance will notice too late that he has been poisoned. Therefore, the red color of the gas requires an immediate call of the foremen for the prevention and adjustment of the equipment.

For soft roofs, the optimal waterproofing and thermal insulation materials are those that are fused with a roofing torch. This is a time-consuming and complex work, which, moreover, is performed at a height. The result of high-quality installation will be a long service life of the roof. Therefore, only high-quality equipment is selected for work. In this article, we will consider the existing types and advantages of various roofing burners.

What is a roof burner

This is a special equipment for heating the welded roof. In addition, with the help of a burner, the surface is dried, the blanks for construction work are heated, the building paint is fired and used in all work where elements or surfaces are required to be heated.

The gas burner for the roof consists of:

a metal glass made of heat-resistant material;
gas hose;
burner ignition nozzles with wind protection.

The roof burner is a mobile design with comfortable carrying handles. It has a low weight, up to 1.5 kg and is equipped with an easy-to-use wooden or plastic handle up to 1 m long.

Most often propane is used as a gas. It enters the housing through the gas hose. Its supply and flame length are regulated using a special valve on the burner. To save consumed gas, roof burners are equipped with a reducer that controls fuel consumption.

All designs of gas burners are provided with an atmospheric air suction system. This is a required function, but there are also additional ones that make the work more comfortable. First of all, the ability to regulate operating modes. For example, when there is a break in operation, the standby mode is activated and fuel is saved. Any gas burner is lit with regular matches or a lighter.

Less popular, but also used for roofing work, are diesel burners.

Application of gas burners

They are used in most of the construction and industrial sectors.

The design of gas burners depends on the fuel they run on and on the application. But in general they are identical. The burner, consisting of a body, a flame adjustment lever of the fuel supply valve, is connected to a gas cylinder through a reducer. Some manufacturers complement the designs of gas burners with additional wind protection of the flame and piezo ignition.

Types of gas burners

Hand torches are used to lay roofs made of bituminous materials. Most often these are propane burners for the roof of the lever structure. They are comfortable to work with - the flame length can be easily adjusted by simply pressing the lever mechanism, switching to an economical mode of gas consumption.

During operation, the gas burner consumes a mixture of propane with air or with the addition of technical oxygen. The safest for work are gas-air burners. They provide sufficient temperature for roofing work, heating metal parts, annealing paint and soldering cables.

Valve-type gas burners are easy to use, lightweight and easy to repair. By creating a high flame with high power, they make it possible to carry out work even in windy weather.

There are also acetylene burners that use a mixture of acetylene and oxygen. Most often they are used for welding. They are arranged in such a way that oxygen, in acetylene injection burners, is needed not only to maintain combustion, but also to supply acetylene.

In addition, burners differ in functionality and have different abbreviations:

GV 500

They are used for roofing works. It is capable of creating a heating temperature of up to three hundred degrees, which is quite enough for fusing all bituminous materials;

GV 850

More advanced model. Has a valve for fine adjustment of the supply of technical gas from the cylinder. And thanks to the lever, the flame length can be easily adjusted during work. Its capacity is sufficient for melting metal-plastic pipes and refractory cables.

GV 3

Powered by propane. Used for heating and welding metal and manual soldering. The size of the diameter of the glass is 5 cm.

GGS1-1.7

The most versatile and most popular burner. Heats the surface up to four hundred degrees. It is used when laying soft roofing materials, road and waterproofing works. The power is 115 kW with a fuel consumption of 9 kg / h.

GGS1-1.0

Indispensable for work in confined spaces and on roofs with a large angle of inclination. It is a good replacement for a conventional blowtorch. With its small size (length 50cm) it has great power, is safe, economical and convenient to use. Its power is 40 kW, and the gas consumption is 3 kg / h.

GGS1-0.5

Used for small roof repairs, soldering, welding cables. Due to its economical fuel consumption, it can work with a five-liter gas cylinder. The power is 10 kW, the consumption is 0.7 kg / h.

GGS2-1.5

Equipped with two parallel sockets, which gives it a high performance. The power is 179 kW with a fuel consumption of 14 kg / h.

GGS4-1.0

Or a unroller. It has 4 sockets, which provides simultaneous heating with a width of 1 meter and allows you to work without interruption. On the cuts there are special hooks for the roofing material, with their help, all the work on its installation can be performed by one person. Power 120 kW, consumption - 12 kg / h.

Gas burners are used in all types of construction and repair work and can heat surfaces up to four hundred degrees. In particular: Gas-air injection burner GG-2, gas burner GVK 1, oil burner GRZh-1, propane burner GSP-3, propane burner GVK-1-R, propane burner GSP-4 and others.

The price of gas burners for roofing varies greatly and depends on many factors: on performance, additional functions, on the ability to work with one or another fuel, as well as on the manufacturer. It is worth noting that they are inexpensive and available to most consumers.

What you need to know when working with a soft roof gas burner?

Let's consider this using the example of roofing work when laying roofing material:

first, the entire surface is cleaned - not only large debris is removed, but also fine dust;
for marking, sheets of roofing material are laid out on the roof with an overlap of up to 10 cm, after which it is twisted, and the edges of all sheets are fixed with a gas burner at the base of the roof;

during operation, a roll of roofing material is rolled out gradually, melting and pressing tightly to the roof surface. All creases and bubbles under the material should be immediately removed. When working on flat roofs, this is done with a hand roller;
the final stage of work with a gas burner will be the heating of all seams of roofing material. When heated, it melts, sticking tightly to the bottom sheet. Additionally, the seams are reinforced with a hand roller.

When a high-quality gas burner with adjustable fuel supply is used for work, up to 600 m of roofing material can be laid non-stop.

Important! It is allowed to use a gas burner for a soft roof at a temperature of at least 15 degrees. If work is required at a lower temperature, a liquid fuel burner is required.

Safety precautions when working with a roofing gas burner

It is required to carry out roofing work in special clothing and shoes with non-slip soles;
use a fall arrest system;
before starting to use, the gas burner is carefully inspected. It is necessary to make sure that all structural elements are in good condition;
during burner operation, there must be no second gas cylinder on the roof. Also, periodically it is necessary to check the tightness of the connection of the hose with the reducer and the cylinder;
when igniting the burner, in no case should you be in front of the nozzle;
it is necessary to adjust the height of the flame so that it does not touch the cylinder, hose or people;
when heating the roofing material to be welded, it must not be allowed to ignite;
only the lower part of the sheet should melt, without softening the entire thickness of the material;
When igniting a propane burner, first open the valve half a turn and leave to purge for a few seconds. And only then the mixture can be ignited and the height of the flame can be adjusted;
with a working gas burner, it is prohibited to leave the work area or climb the scaffolding;
to extinguish the burner, the gas supply is first shut off, and then the lock lever is lowered;
if the burner overheats or a kickback occurs, work immediately stops, the gas is shut off, and the burner is put to cool in a container with cold water.

Buy a ready-made burner or make it yourself?

It should be said right away that it will be much easier and safer to buy a ready-made burner than to make it yourself. But if you have confidence in your abilities and love to do everything with your own hands, then you can try.

A gas burner is a complex device and in order to make it, certain skills are required, and thorough adherence to many rules. But all the same, it is better to leave part of the work for professionals. This primarily concerns the gas supply system and storage tanks.

A metal rod and a diffuser are used to make a torch. Attach them to a heat-resistant wood handle.

The gas hose is taken from a gas welding system or machined from brass yourself.

Despite the fact that outwardly a self-assembled roofing burner will differ significantly from store-bought counterparts, it will cope with its main functions.

But when working with it, you will have to pay particular attention to the slightest gas leaks or other malfunctions. And even with a minor problem, work should be stopped immediately.

Diesel burner for roofing

These roof burners run on liquid fuel. They are especially relevant for work with a large temperature minus, in this case they are equipped with a built-in fuel heating. They are fully automated and capable of handling different fuel qualities. Diesel roof burners are equipped with a high-pressure blowing system that ensures stable and safe ignition and reduces soot formation.

Liquid fuel burners are structurally different from their gas counterparts. The diesel fuel enters the chamber under high pressure, which causes the liquid to atomize. And already atomized tiny particles are ignited at the exit from the nozzle, creating a flame. In this connection, the burner is connected to the compressor and the fuel tank using oil-resistant hoses.

An oil fired roof burner is designed to operate under the following conditions:

at ambient temperatures from - 25 to + 40 degrees;
at atmospheric pressure - 101 kPa;
if necessary, the flame temperature is up to 600-800 degrees.

In this case, the approximate consumption of diesel fuel is 10 l / 100 m2 of area.

How to work with a diesel roof burner:

check the serviceability of all structural elements;
turn on the compressor to supply air to the nozzle. Then, by opening the fuel supply valve, bring a special ignition harness to the nozzle. After igniting with the diesel fuel supply valve, adjust the flame level.

Both in everyday life and in professional repairs, portable gas burners are very popular. The scope of their application is very wide, and there are several varieties. You can choose the right burner for the current task and learn how to use it correctly by studying this article.

The main varieties of portable burners

Gas burners in the form of nozzles for cylinders with collet connections must be considered as a separate class of tools. They are used in high fire safety conditions at sites where heavy construction equipment does not work and the risk of damage to the burner itself is minimal.

First of all, burners are characterized by the temperature and shape of the flame. The simplest devices have a combustion temperature close to the minimum, only 700-1000 ° C. Air enters the burner naturally, so it is always in short supply. At the same time, more expensive products have a special shape of the air supply channels, due to this, the air flow increases, and the combustion temperature rises to 1200 ° C.

An even hotter flame is produced by ejector-type burners, in which air is supplied to the hearth due to vacuum, the flow force is directly proportional to the working gas pressure. This allows you to raise the temperature to 1500-1600 ° C and relatively smoothly regulate it together with the flame length by simply turning the tap. There may be several combustion centers in the burner; such a tool is not intended for delicate work, but it heats up large areas perfectly.

The highest combustion temperature for burners is 2000-2400 ° C and it is achieved due to the concentration of the forced air in the combustion center and the use of a special gas: methylacetylene propadiene (MAPP). A high-temperature cone is formed in the burner flame, comparable in power and temperature with oxy-fuel welding, but not capable of autogenous cutting.

Optionally, for all types of burners, there is a flexible or swivel tube, piezo ignition and a highly sensitive control valve. With a large temperature range, there is an equally wide selection of burners in terms of power and corresponding gas flow rate.

Tourist burners

Low temperature burners solve a really wide range of tasks and are suitable for domestic use and professional construction. Such blowtorches are most often replaced by electric hair dryers in places where only autonomous operation is possible.

The main disadvantage of burners without an injector is low flame stability, which is especially noticeable with sharp turns and tilts. Liquefied gas splashes do not have a significant effect in burners of a more expensive class with a special reducer and a heating circuit.

As a rule, such torches are not used for soldering. Their main purpose is to ignite firewood and coals or to heat materials that allow the use of an open flame. Such a tool is also indispensable for thawing pipes, heating automobile engines or unpacking squeegees on tow, burning paint for removing it and other rough work.

Blown blow torches

Ejector blowtorches have a more specific device and purpose. They are the constant assistants of many designers and craftsmen in the processing of non-ferrous metals. The high temperature and flame control make the torches ideal for brazing and hardening metals or other heat treatments that require high temperature accuracy and a well-defined taper.

Due to the specific application, the size of burners and nozzles can vary greatly. Miniatures are used for soldering jewelry and thin metal, despite the lack of pure oxygen supply, they cope even with filigree work. Medium class torches have a cone thickness of 3 to 9 mm and are best suited for the electrical soldering of cable joints, copper and aluminum tubes.

Due to their high power, larger burners are rational to use in such industries as artistic forging, precision bending or metal stamping. It is these tools that home craftsmen use as the basis for homemade gas forges and hardening furnaces.

For ejector burners, the concept of an unstable flame is purely figurative, and although periodic bursts of gas are possible, the core temperature remains relatively stable. The gas preheating circuit is used more to improve the efficiency of the burners, faster reaching the operating power and accurate temperature control.

High temperature gas burners

Burners that use MAPP gas instead of a propane-butane mixture cannot be overlooked. The combustion temperature of the flame in them is 2200-2400 ° C, while the main energy is concentrated in a cone, which is quite stable and has a pronounced border.

Such burners are used for heating, forging and bending high-carbon steels and massive parts. The high temperature also allows for better hardening and tempering of the metal.

When it comes to brazing and welding, MAPP gas torches do an excellent job with stainless steel without overheating even delicate parts. Another advantage of MAPP gas is its low boiling point, which makes it possible to use it at temperatures of -20 ° C even in burners without a heating circuit.

Choosing the best option

When choosing a gas burner for various tasks, you should pay attention to individual nuances. For tourism purposes, the simplest naturally aspirated torch burners are well suited. Even cheap Chinese products can cope with lighting a fire or heating food, it is absolutely not a pity to break or lose them.

For household purposes and minor repairs, it is better not to purchase tools from the amateur series. Slightly more expensive semi-professional burners have a more thoughtful design and are devoid of such non-obvious drawbacks as, for example, melting of the plastic lining of the mouthpiece or a malfunctioning piezo ignition. Another argument against the mid-price category is the almost universal absence of a normal control valve, which can be important even for rough work.

If the torch is selected for fine work, soldering or welding, additional consideration should be given to ergonomics and balancing. During such work, the burner has to be switched on and off often, therefore the shape of the body and the placement of the control elements should allow for ignition and precise adjustment with one hand.

When choosing the power, one should be guided by the thickness and material of the workpieces. A 500-700 W burner will be sufficient for firing paint or soldering copper wires. Tubes made of non-ferrous metals and steel products up to 3 mm thick will warm up well at a flame power of about 1200-1500 W. Burners of 2-3 kW are used for heating and bending fittings up to 14 mm thick. There is one more feature: the flame of powerful high-quality burners can be adjusted for finer work, but it is impossible to heat a massive part with a low-power burner.