Color of Gas Cylinders stored in Bulkhead Racks on Board Ship

[bbvet]

The color of gas cylinders that are in bulkhead racks on board naval vessels has been asked on one of the model ship forums I participate in. I'm also curious, as this is something that I'll have to address on my 1:200 NEW JERSEY (1968-69) model currently in progress.

The question(s) are:

1) What colors are the cylinders and what gases do they contain? I would think this would include: acetylene, argon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, helium, compressed air, CO2 (fire - red)
2) Are these colors a MILSPEC requirement or Industrial Code requirement?
3) If MILSPEC, is this unclassified (I would think so) and available on online?

I've found quite a few industrial cylinder charts online that range from a-z as far as use goes. My specific interest is what cylinders were usually carried on board ship and their color codes.

Any help is appreciated.

Hank

[desertswo]

The color of gas cylinders that are in bulkhead racks on board naval vessels has been asked on one of the model ship forums I participate in. I'm also curious, as this is something that I'll have to address on my 1:200 NEW JERSEY (1968-69) model currently in progress.

The question(s) are:

1) What colors are the cylinders and what gases do they contain? I would think this would include: acetylene, argon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, helium, compressed air, CO2 (fire - red)
2) Are these colors a MILSPEC requirement or Industrial Code requirement?
3) If MILSPEC, is this unclassified (I would think so) and available on online?

I've found quite a few industrial cylinder charts online that range from a-z as far as use goes. My specific interest is what cylinders were usually carried on board ship and their color codes.

Any help is appreciated.

Hank

The US Navy uses the same color coding as the public sector. Most of those gases you mentioned won't be found aboard ship for obvious reasons. The standard ones you are likely to find bulkhead mounted both above and below decks are nitrogen (dark gray as I recall) as part of a hydraulic system; oxygen (green) for several uses, not the least of which is first aid; and fire fighting agents (red), such as CO2, PKP, etc. Flammable liquid lines such as fuel oil or lube oil are yellow. None of the welding gases are bulkhead mounted so you need not worry about them.

[bbvet]

Desertswo,

Thanks so much! You've brought up something that I had forgotten about - the welding gases being stowed below in their probable shop areas out of sight. That leaves the 02 (Gn), CO2 (Gray), CO2 Fire (Red), and N2 (Gn/Gray) to be loc'd on the exterior racks. (I'm currently looking at the SIG cylinder chart [Southern Industrial Gas] cylinder chart). I do recall seeing the welders toting around bottles of acetylene on their wheeled carts complete with hoses and torches coiled up, etc.

NEW JERSEY had the helo deck fire suppression system bottles on the bulkheads of the old Movie Projection Booth and the stbd. 40mm after tub - those I've pegged from color photos. I'll have to do a check of all my references to see what the dispersion of bottles might have been if I can spot the racks on color photos.

I sort of figured that the military would defer to industrial coding rather than create a separate system of their own.

Thanks again,

Hank

[RustyBattleship]

Acetylene tanks (yellow in color and often squattier than other gas tanks) were always in the shops for oxy-acetylene cutting of steel. Back pack size tanks of both Oxygen and Acetylene were always part of the equipment for each Damage Control team. If the water in the compartment (while fighting a fire) got too close to the 9-inch high sill of one of the doors of a Fire Zone bulkhead, the torch man would find some spot in a bulkhead (or even the hull plating) to cut out a drain hole so as not to capsize the shipl

Helium tanks were needed for two purposes. The main purpose was to fill and launch weather balloons. The second purpose was used as a gas envelope (flux) for welding aluminum. I think those bottles were gray with a cream colored band around the top.

As desertswo said, go along with the standard commercial colors for those various gases and you can't go wrong.

[bbvet]

Thanks, Dick - will do!

Hank