Atmospheres for heat treating non-ferrous metals and alloys

Abstract From the Canadian patent

A process for producing low-cost atmospheres suitable for annealing brazing, and sintering non-ferrous metals and alloys from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing up to 5% residual oxygen is disclosed. According to the process suitable atmospheres are produced by 1) pre-heating the non-cryogenically produced nitrogen stream containing residual oxygen to a desired temperature, 2) mixing it with more than a stoichiometric amount a hydrocarbon gas, 3) passing it through a reactor packed with a platinum group of metal catalyst to reduce the residual oxygen to very low levels and convert it to a mixture of moisture and carbon dioxide and, 4) using the reactor effluent stream for …