Burner
Burner turns up in 2 fields: welding, boilers. Here is what it means to the people in each one.
Burner in welding
Shop name for the tradesperson who does torch cutting, or for the cutting torch itself.
In shipyards, steel mills, scrap yards and fab shops, the burner is the worker who cuts plate, shapes and scrap with an oxyfuel or plasma torch, and burning means torch cutting. The word also refers to the torch. Burners lay out and cut bevels, holes and copes, and on demolition and scrap jobs they cut steel down to size.
"Get the burner to cut those copes before lunch, the fitters are waiting on them."
Burner in boilers
The assembly that mixes fuel with air and holds a stable flame to heat the boiler.
A burner meters fuel, supplies and shapes combustion air, ignites the mix and keeps the flame anchored at the right size and shape for the furnace. Gas burners mix gas and air in a head or premix chamber; oil burners atomize oil through a nozzle; dual-fuel burners can switch between them. Burner setup, called tuning, decides efficiency, emissions and how cleanly the boiler runs.
"Burner needs a full tune-up before heating season, last fall's combustion report had CO all over the place."