Dear colleagues, if I want to work with an oxy/acet cutting torch, do I need a certificate of competency for that? Thanks for your reply.

Short answer, yes. Google it or look at the gas suppliers web sites. Paul

Ian, Ciaran, has touched on a valuable point, what type of work are you doing and in what environment. Oxy fuel welding and cutting has been around for a long time and as with any task the competency of the operator varies from a jobber to a craftsman. I know a number of time served welders who would say that you do need a qualification but then I have seen a number of very good jobbers. A good example are pipe welders who may be engaged on pressure systems etc these will require a coding issued by a number of certification bodies. One of the most well known is APE-ASME (American Petroleum Exporters, American Society of American Engineers). An example of this would be APE-ASME 6G restricted etc where the welder is tested on the type of work before he is permitted to work on the job for real (Quasi quality, mixed with competency and a bit of insurance mixed in for good measure). Lifting eyes and lugs are another case to mention, I would not wish to be near one that has not been fully tested etc) Every position a welder is expected to lay down a bead of weld is covered by a particular test (Google, Welding Institute for examples). Equally so the tests vary to the extent that the welder is also tested on the material that he is expected to weld and also the equipment he is expected to weld with eg in your case oxy-acetylene, but it can also be TIG, MIG, TAG and MAG welding etc and a mixture of more than one process eg gas root and manual metal arc fill and cap etc. When this is said a welder properly trained to use Oxy-Acetyylene will also be aware of the hazards that the process can generate such as particulate fume etc. So competency does come in to it and with welders especially, they are probably the only trade that has to submit to a trade test each and every time that they are employed on a new job. Their coding only lasts for six months after the last job they have completed that has successfully passed stringent tests such as both destructive and none destructive weld testing. Please be carful with this type of equipment whilst it has improved in safety over the years but serious accidents still occur. I once spoke with a senior fire officer and when asked how they deal with an acetylene cylinder on fire. His response part humour and part serious was, "We tie a rope around the neck of the cylinder and kick it in the river, hoping that the rope comes off". The oxygen cylinder is equally dangerous not simply because of the opportunity to promote fire but if damaged they really do fly like a missile. Hope this helps and apologies for the length of the response but for completeness it was necessary.

Ian tish. You started your first post in this thread stating that you know almost nothing about the subject, then gave an uninformed opinion. You then criticise another who does have obvious knowledge who actually answered the original question for the length of their post, despite the last statement explaining the length of the post. Why?

Ian, Yes I was agreeing with your posting, but more importantly with respect to welders the piece of paper is irrelavant as welders working on coded work have to test out each time they are employed on new work. The trade is unique because it doesent matter what part of the world you come from the paper certificate is worthless, you can either lay a bead of weld down or you can not, imposters are quickly exposed. Again apologies if you felt the posting was laborious but to provide a little bit of information can be dangerous.

Thomas Thank you. I had no doubt that we were in agreement, though I suspect Martinw finds it all too difficult to understand.

I note that the original question was about CUTTING rather than welding. The competency issue has been debated on numerous occassions on the forum. Assuming jurisdiction is UK, the short answer to the question "..do I need a certificate of competency.." (for cutting), I reckon the short answer is 'no' but as always the requirement to be competent applies. It puzzles me somewhat about the endless debates on competency.

I have never particularly liked the use of the ‘quote’ button. I am not sure if it is a moot point or not, nor am I entirely sure what a recognised trade is or whether it is relevant in the context of the HASAWA. Nor am I sure what jurisdiction Yev works under, but assume HASAWA. Yev asked a fairly straightforward question “if I want to work with an oxy/acet cutting torch, do I need a certificate of competency for that?” I think he deserves a relatively straightforward answer which I was trying to give. There are some types of work where a ‘certificate of competency’ is ‘available’. Having such a certificate may be desirable, or even required either through statute, ACoP or contract. As far as I am aware, the answer to his question is ‘no‘ (although that wouldn’t cover any contractual requirement of course). As I and others have already said, the person should be competent; an appropriate ‘certificate’ may or may not help to establish that. I don’t think it needs to be any more complicated than that.