Scuba Tank Wall Thickness

[ryt]

I was wondering if anyone knew where to find the average wall thickness of a scuba tank. I have an old LP Steel that I wanted to find out how thick it's walls are. Its a US Divers Tank with an original hydro of 1960. Anyone's help is appreciated.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The average wall thickness on a steel 72 is only about 1/4 of an inch in the side walls. It's a little thicker in the shoulder.

AL tanks have closer to a half inch of side wall thickness.

 

[knotical]

My 1997 copy of Bill High’s book “Inspecting Cylinders” has a table with average cylinder dimensions, including wall thicknesses.
It shows steel cylinders ranging from 0.164 - 0.197 inches (4.2 - 5.0 mm).
Typical aluminum cylinders range from 0.465 – 0.608 (11.8 – 15.5 mm), with a few oddballs having thinner walls.

If your 1960 steel is a classic 72, it probably runs about 0.185 inch (4.7 mm).
The text states that the 72 must have at least 0.164 inches (4.16 mm), but the ones he measured ranged from 0.170 – 0.190 inches (4.31 – 4.82 mm).

 

[oxyhacker]

Acccording to the DOT specs, Steel 72s must have a minimum wall thickness of .164 at manufacture, but tend to run thicker, say, .180 or so. The are usually a bit thicker at the top and bottom. Cut one in two and fell the thickness, and its pretty scary, to think that little bit of metal (most of them started as 1/4" disks of plate steel that were spun into shape) is all that's between you and a whole lot of explosive potential.

Aluminum 80s have a miniumum DOT thickness of .491", and in real life run about .521"