Ethylene

Hi
Does anybody know anything about the use of ethylene in welding?
SWMBO is studying floristry and was researching ethylene, which is apparently produced when flower stems or foliage are damaged and the ethylene acts to shorten the vase life of the flowers.
She checked on Wikipedia and it says "Approximately 80% of ethylene used in the United States and Europe is used to create ethylene oxide, ethylene dichloride, and polyethylene.[12] In smaller quantities, ethylene is used as an anesthetic agent (in an 85% ethylene/15% oxygen ratio), to hasten fruit ripening, as well as a welding gas.[12][13]
I presume it must be a fuel gas - but I could be wrong -- probably!!
I've checked the BOC site and can't see anything about ethylene.
Does anyone have any idea what it's used for?


Wannabewelder

Never haers of Ethylene as a welding gas... them Americans have a different name for certain things.

The other name for Acetylene is Ethyne... Wiki explains a bit about it... Ethylene is used to make aceylene.... id think thats what they mean, perhaps.

Thanks Hitch
That's probably it! I'll do a bit more research on the manufacture of acetylene.
I read the Wiki extract as that ethylene was actually used in the welding process - didn't occur that it might be used to make acetylene. Your chemistry knowledge is obviously better than mine!!

Regards

Wannabe

if it is an anesthetic then I wouldn't fancy my chances of welding straight!

Originally Posted by Hitch

The other name for Acetylene is Ethyne... Wiki explains a bit about it... Ethylene is used to make aceylene.... id think thats what they mean, perhaps.

I think this is correct, the combustion products of ethylene are highly toxic.

Ethylene is the monomer of polyethylene, two carbons linked by a double bond... Not much use in welding I'm afraid, but to the polymer industry.....

It is used for fruit ripening by exposing bananas and the like to it in chambers to increase their ripening rate...



For acetylene on the other hand is two carbons linked by a tryple bond, produced industrially at about 3 sites in the UK under license by dropping calcium carbide into water and collecting it...

One option that is offered is propene, or methyl acetylene. Accounts for about 30% of MAPP gas where another 30% is propadiene, the rest being LPG...
A safer alternative to acetylene that can be liquified as opposed to dissolved like acetylene...
The only side effect is that it's secondary flame temperature is hotter or as hot as the primary, meaning that the area around which your welding melts before the area your trying to weld

Sounds like another example of wikiballocks.

Chunkolini

I tend to be very wary now on accounts some people update pages with nonsense just for the fun of it....

I wouldn't believe anything on wikispodeida that I didn't already know...

Thanks for all the helpful replies guys.
I find Wikipedia very useful as a rule and I can't recall any "whoopsies" in the past. It seems sad to me that anyone would want to deliberately corrupt what is an extremely useful tool - it's almost like coming on this forum and knowingly giving someone bad advice!
Thanks in particular to Omniata. I remember my father telling me about old motorbikes having acetylene lamps that required water and "carbide" and I seem to remember reading somewhere that "carbide" could be used for poaching salmon by creating underwater explosions - but perhaps we'd better not pursue that too much further!
Interesting too about the MAPP gas I didn't know of it's limitations - I just assumed that it wasn't a hot enough flame.

Wannabe