How are Chlorine Cylinders Made?

April 21, 2022

Chlorine is one of the most manufactured chemicals in the world. Both chlorine gas and liquid chlorine have a variety of uses. This chemical is omnipresent in human civilisation, from bleaching paper and cloth to treating dirty water. But, that doesn’t make Chlorine a safe or non-hazardous chemical. It’s stored in pressurised cylinders because it spreads rapidly and can have uncontrolled reactions with human skin and other chemicals.

Of course, the most common use of chlorine is in water treatment. Typically, chlorine cylinders weighing 150 lbs. are used for residential water treatment in small water systems. The chemical is sold “by the pound” or “by the kilogram.” The cylinders that carry this chemical are often called “ton containers.” That’s because chlorine is heavy.

Chlorine gas is approximately 2.5 times heavier than air, whereas liquid chlorine is 1.5 times heavier than water. All leading manufacturers of liquid chlorine cylinders use high-quality cylinders to store this chemical. Preventing accidental leaks is their primary goal. To achieve this goal, they take various technical steps that improve the safety and efficiency of their liquid chlorine cylinders.

Chlorine Cylinders – How are they Made?

There are two types of chlorine cylinders - flanged and non-flanged. Chlorine cylinders with flanges are openable and easy to clean. Your typical chorine cylinder will be composed of the following components – the outer shell, head, bottle valves, and backing plates. Here’s how each of these components of liquid chlorine cylinders is manufactured –

Creating the Shell

Sheet metal forming is a standard practice in chlorine cylinder manufacturing. Once manufacturers create the shells of their cylinders, they send them for surface treatment and safety testing. Here are the steps involved in the shell building process –

1. Cutting the metal sheets

2. Punching the sheets

3. Punching long holes in the sheets

4. Pre-bending

5. Covering the sheets with large protective letterings

6. Rolling the sheets

7. Welding and pressing the metal sheets

Once the shell’s top and bottom regions combine to form a cylindrical envelope, the shell process is complete. After that, the manufacturers perform the welding operations for the cylinder’s left and suitable heads.

Processing of The Left and Right Heads

To process the left and suitable heads of liquid chlorine cylinders, manufacturers take the following steps –

1. Cutting the plates

2. Deburring

3. Calendaring

4. Head beveling

5. Head drilling

6. Head polishing

Pad Processing

Once the left and right heads of the liquid chlorine cylinders are polished, the manufacturers process their pads. Here are the steps they take -

1. Cutting Plate

2. Rolling

3. Welding

4. Sanding

5. Cutting

Cylinder Body Gets Processed

Now, the final cylinder body has to be processed. Here are the steps cylinder manufacturers take to

1. Cut the metal plates

2. Gas cut the bevels on both sides of the cylinders

3. Remove rust at both ends of the cylinders

4. Pre-bending at both ends of the cylinders

5. Rolling

6. Longitudinal seam welding

7. Test plate welding

8. Non-destructive testing

Assembly Chlorine Gas Cylinder

Once the cylinder’s body passes the non-destructive tests, it’s time for the final step – assembly. The quality of heat treatment and welding applied to this process is crucial to the cylinders’ definitive characteristics –

1. Assemble and weld the left/right heads with plug and valve seats

2. Assemble the heads and gasket plates

3. Assemble the heads with large/small shells and cylinder bodies

4. Circumferential welding

5. Non-destructive testing

6. Final welding of all large and small shells

7. Heat treatment

8. Weighing and measuring capacity analysis

9. Mechanical properties test

10. Hydraulic test