Calculating the required gas supply is relatively easy, but there are several factors to consider:
- Determine the number of welding points or drop points that need to be supplied.
- Multiply this number by the peak flow at each outlet, which is typically around 15 litres per minute.
- Consider the likelihood of all the welders operating simultaneously.
Let’s take a practical example to illustrate the calculation. Suppose you have 70 welders requiring a mix of 20% CO2 and 80% Argon, with each outlet using 16 litres per minute, and the factory operates at 75% efficiency. The calculation would be as follows:
Peak flow = 16 l/min × 70 welders × 0.75 efficiency = 784 l/min peak flow or around 47 Nm³ per hour.
20% of that will be CO2, which is around 9.4 Nm³ per hour.
80% of that will be Argon, which is around 37.6 Nm³ per hour.