I've been thinking... (Yeah, that can be dangerous...)

They've been making Oxygen generators for years for medical uses,
and the Nitrogen tire filling craze is upon us... And both gases are
used a lot in the home shop and small industrial settings, too.

And Murphy has it rigged that you always seem to run out of gas at
the worst possible moment, like 5 minutes after the local supplier has
closed for the weekend. Or you live on an island, or on top of a
mountain three hours out of the closest town...

But the only price I can find for a small PSA Nitrogen system is
$5,000 from Ingersoll-Rand, and nothing on Oxygen system pricing
(though I didn't look that hard on that side).

And since the system is basically passing the one gas through to the
storage tank, and adsorbing and throwing out the other, couldn't you
use one machine, two storage tanks, and have them both? Conveniently
separated, the Oxygen stored at anything above 50 PSI which is plenty
for welding and cutting, and the Nitrogen for tires and a shield/purge
gas?

And since it's for shop use, neither gas needs to be 99.999+% pure,
or USP certified, or rated for gas chromatography machine usage - it
just has to work, and not take up an acre of floor space. That should
lower the price significantly. Let the buyer supply their own two
stage compressor and air dryer, any decent shop needs them anyway.

There's a market niche to be filled here... Harbor Freight,
Northern Tool, are you listening?

-- Bruce --