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I get why oxy fuel torches are kinda expensive
but why is an air acetylene torch expensive
it's 1/3 the complexity why does it cost just as much
- BowserNoodle ☦️ likes this.
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@deprecated_ii I've been told acetylene is one of the most difficult things to produce with chemical engineering, at scale.
To quote someone from that industry "if you can make acetylene, then you can make anything."
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@hazlin if they mean profitably, perhaps
it's not hard to make from a technical point of view
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@deprecated_ii hmm, I was told you have to mix a HV spark gap with flammable gases, and hit the correct ratios and PVT windows.
Now it could be I have the chemical name mixed up with something else, but if I am recalling the name correctly, then a number of years ago I had someone telling me about working with an exiting plant, that suffered an explosion when trying to implement an acetylene line (and had hired that person as a consultant which led to a successful implementation).
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@deprecated_ii @hazlin Sometimes they're more complex for the opposite reason. I once heard of a company who had a polymer they developed 30+ years ago that was becoming expensive to produce because of monomer supply chain issues. One of their jr. engineers was working on a substitute and ended up building one using a more primitive formula that had better properties (long lifespan, cheaper to make) with less manufacturing cost or time. The notes from 30 years ago mentioned the polymer as "not plausible to manufacture". Stuff changes and people don't retain the knowledge of why they're stuck in their paradigm.
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@deprecated_ii Oh! That makes sense! I had no idea.
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@hazlin a lot of our industrial processes are way more complex than they really need to be, either because they're very slightly more efficient that way, or because of environmental bullshit, or both
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@hazlin the traditional way of making acetylene is by simply making calcium carbide in an arc furnace and adding water. once upon a time, it was (somewhat) common for people who needed a lot of acetylene to buy calcium carbide pellets in bulk and have their own acetylene generator on the premises, for welding or whatever. acetylene is a pain in the ass to store and transport so generating it on site makes a lot of sense. unfortunately this is basically never done at the end user anymore
they're probably trying to do it in some "environmentally friendly" way with a billion EPA regulations hemming them in
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@hazlin they know what they've been taught :02_shrug:
but they don't necessarily know what they don't know. if ya know what I mean
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@deprecated_ii @hazlin Known unknowns and unknown unknowns.
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@deprecated_ii this is just another reminder that I shouldn't trust the things I learned from professionals lol.
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@deprecated_ii @hazlin Same here. I truly think "AI" as a sort of librarian might make sense. Logging data and helping people parse stuff for future lookbacks and the like.
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@BowsacNoodle @hazlin that sort of thing is very interesting to me. we never seem to stop and look back and see if the branch we took X years ago is still the best choice given the new conditions we have now
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@BowsacNoodle @deprecated_ii @hazlin That could easily been some bs office politics thing with some guy poopooing for clout.
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@Griffith @deprecated_ii @hazlin Without going into doxxing territory, this one is real. They literally could not make this 30+ years ago and today it's simple because things changed in production and material availability and such. Here's the thing though — it's going to happen again, repeatedly. The fact that the company gave this to a junior was actually very good resource allocation, because he wasn't jaded by expectations.
d
hazlin no plap pirate
BowserNoodle ☦️
Griffith
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