Jim Davey
R H Davey Welding Supplies Ltd
- Messages
- 5,736
- Location
- Southampton
They don't point at me line of sight Jim and this is where the main point of an excellent post comes into play, people modifying them by bodging them. In response to your point about them saving the regulator from exploding; would you rather have an extra layer of protection to prevent this, i.e. the OLV or not? personally I would. You are correct about the biggest cause of accidents is stupidity and ignorance but I would disagree with qualifications for home welding as it would come under regulation and cost many people a lot of hard earned cash.
I personally think Steve sums it up nicely in his quote, the cheap, imported regulators with fraudulent markings as this is a huge problem and one which should be addressed at a national level.
I also think people such as yourself could do a little more as retailers, if you spent a few minutes explaining the issues and use your obvious extensive experience to take the time with newbies it could help the situation massively, even producing a little safety sheet and asking them to read it.
You cannot legislate for stupidity.
You cannot legislate for ignorance.
What you can do is change that ignorance for knowledge and being at the front end you could make a huge difference.
This is in no way a criticism, just possible options.
How do you know I don't do that? I spend weeks every year educating customers that will listen, but many don't buy their gear face to face, they buy online, or worse second hand. Therefore they have no chance to talk to someone who might save them from some potential danger.
By the way plenty of regulators have a PRV that faces towards the user when mounted. Take a BOC reg for instance, base entry, often the PRV is at the top between the clocks and would vent safely upwards. If you take that same reg and fit it to an Air Products or Air Liquide cylinder with a 90 degree outlet rather than vertical, the PRV is now aimed squarely at your face if you open it while stood in front, unless you are the height of Ronnie Corbett that is!