Anyone Use a Multiplaz?

Nope. Cool tool, Festering price.

-- "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." --Edward Abbey

Ditto. I hadn't heard of it. Claims seem a bit extravagent. Could be true, but I smell a rat.

Karl

How very intriguing! Chem E's, a little help please?

Would it be more proper to say that the water+alcohol mixture changes state from liquid to steam to hydrogen + oxygen gas to plasma in the torch head, (rather than from liquid to steam)?

I suspect the alcohol just lowers the vapor pressure of the mixture, yes?

..Though I admit the inventor curiously claims "Plasma Steam" in 5,719,370 and 5,609,777. :)

--Winston

I'm a Chem Eng (retired) but not sure I can comment with any great authority. However:

I suspect that is what's happening. The plasma disassociates the water into H2 & O2 which then recombine to deposit heat energy at the work piece. This would be something similar to an "atomic" oxy-hydrogen torch in which H2 gas is disassociated by a plasma into elemental (atomic) H which then recombines in a similar fashion producing a higher temperature than oxygen/hydrogen alone.

Alcohol would reduce the vapour pressure but it's hard to say what role it would actually play. Maybe it simply provides a source CO2 to act as a shield or maybe it acts as a reducing agent to take up any stray O2 around the weld

Laurie Forbes

Interesting. However, nothing much on the company itself. Finally tracked down reference to being a Swedish company. Makes one wonder why the secrecy!

Paul

Typical information-free site for sure. Pretty, though.

The key is to use steam as the working fluid in what is essentially a TIG torch. They claim steam or steam+alcohol to be almost as good as argon, and a lot cheaper.

I was able to find the US patents, having gleaned the names of the inventors from their awards:

Joe Gwinn

(...)

Interesting!

Thank you sir.

--Winston

The inventors are Russian, from their names, and from the original patents gave their place of residence as Moscow, Russia.

Patent numbers listed in the main thread.

Joe Gwinn

Swedish, eh? Saaaaaaay, aren't they the folks who gave Barry a freakin' Nobel Peace Prize?

-- "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." --Edward Abbey

Maybe the alcohol consumes the water - e.g. if water - surround it - make it burnable or not inert. Something like the add to gasoline solution that absorbs the water - and allows the engine to burn or pass it without chilling the engine.

Martin

Interesting. There are a few videos on the web: