Laurie Forbes wrote:

(...)

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.




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

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!

Thank you sir.

--Winston