The industrial accidents concerning gas cutting and welding had occurred frequently. The research institute (JNIOSH) collected the accident information and conducted a field survey. Gas cutting apparatus were collected from many factories and measured their performance. The collection work was done with the cooperation of the Japan Welding Engineering Society (JWES). In this paper, only the results of the dry flashback arrestor are described. 79 dry flashback arrestors for fuel and 31 for oxygen were collected from 50 factories. The collected arrestors had been used for 3 to 21 years. We analyzed the collection questionnaire and measured the performance of those arrestors. In the performance measurement, the visual inspection, the gas-leak test, the reverse-flow test, and the cut-off test were performed. Furthermore, deteriorated, or defective arrestors were disassembled, and the inside was examined. Failures are seen in 3 to 4 years. It is found that the largest number of failures is revers-flow for both fuel and oxygen.
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