Being able to identify your own cylinders, especially when working on a site with other companies, is essential when it comes to reducing losses.

 

Marking your cylinders can assist you to reduce cylinder losses. This is just another simple change that you can make to gain better control of the gas cylinders you have on hire.

 

There are a couple of ways you can mark your cylinders. One way is to ask your supplier to assign a code to your company, which they generally have available. The code will be a letter, number or combination thereof.

 

Request that they apply the decal to all gas cylinders dispatched to your site, prior to leaving their depot. This is the most convenient method of marking your cylinders, but be aware; there are a couple of drawbacks to this method.

 

First, the decals can easily be removed. Second, if they are busy in the depot, they can forget to apply them prior to dispatching your shipment.

 

If you are going to ask your supplier to issue you a code and apply the labels to your cylinders, ask them to supply you with spare labels so you can apply them on site if they are removed for any reason or if they forget to apply them prior to delivery.

 

Another way of marking your gas cylinders is to use a paint pen and place a unique mark on each cylinder, when they are delivered. If you are to use this method, it’s best to use a couple of dots or dashes on the cylinders, so the supplier doesn’t have to repaint the cylinders each time they come back in.

 

By using a couple of dots, they tend to look like paint spots that have been accidentally dropped on the cylinder and no real notice is taken by outsiders. By making your staff aware of the markings to be used and consistently applying them in the same general location on all cylinders, they soon learn to recognize your cylinders amongst others.

 

In summary, easy recognition of your cylinders by way of marking is an effective way of reducing cylinder loss. I’ve mentioned a couple ways, I’m sure there are many more. The main thing is to come up with a way to easily identify your cylinders for added control.