Argon (Ar) is a noble gas that comprises 0.93 percent of the earth's atmosphere. (Noble gases are a group of rare gases that include argon, helium, krypton, neon, xenon and sometimes radon. They exhibit great stability and extremely low reaction rates. Also called inert gases.
Colorless, odorless, tasteless and nontoxic, argon forms no known chemical compounds. A specific gravity of 1.38 makes argon 25 percent heavier than air. At atmospheric pressure, it becomes a liquid at -302° F (-186° C). Non corrosive and non-flammable, argon also exhibits low thermal conductivity and slight solubility in water.
Production of Argon :-
A co-product of oxygen and nitrogen production, argon is manufactured commercially by means of air separation technology. In a cryogenic process, atmospheric air is compressed and cooled. Following liquefaction, the air is fractionally distilled based on the different boiling points of each component. (The boiling point of argon is between those of nitrogen and oxygen.)
During distillation, liquid nitrogen is the first product extracted from the high-pressure column. Next, a stream containing oxygen and argon (plus other gases) is withdrawn. The crude stream, containing approximately 10 percent argon, is refined in a separate distillation column to produce argon with 98 percent purity.
Manufacturers can further refine the stream by mixing the argon with hydrogen, catalytically burning the trace oxygen to water, drying and, finally, distilling the stream to remove remaining hydrogen and nitrogen. Using this process, producers can achieve an argon product with 99.9995 percent purity.
Argon Mixtures :-
Argon-CO2 mixtures are slow gasses with low diffusion, and are therefore used sometimes for high precision chambers. These mixtures are free of hydrocarbons, and are therefore fairly safe with respect to ageing in high rate environments. Other Mixtures are as follows :-
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Specifications :-
| Argon | Total Purity By Volume (%) | Maximum Levels Of Impurities ( ppm by volume ) | ||||||||
| Grade | Code | O2 | H2O | N2 | H2 | CO | CO2 | THC | Nitrogen Oxides | |
| Argon - Commercial | Ar - Com | 99.989 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 31.5 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Argon Grade III | Ar - III | 99.991 | 6 | 6 | 21 | 4.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Argon Grade II | Ar - II | 99.9993 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Argon Grade I | Ar - I | 99.9998 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Nil | Nil | Nil | 0.2 | Nil |
| Argon Spl. | Ar - SPL | 99.9999 | 1 | 1 | 3 | Nil | Nil | Nil | 0.2 | Nil |
Applications / Usages :-
- Inert Gas Shield In Are Welding
- A.O.D. Process For Manufacturing Stainless Steel
- Refining Of Copper & Stainless Steel
- Excimer Laser with Helium or Neon
- Carrier Gas in Gas Chromatography & Gas Analysis
- Filling of Lamps with Nitrogen/Non/Krypton & Valve manufacture
- Brazing & Soldering In Metal Refining
- Geiger Counting Tubes
- Inductive Coupled Plasma
- Vacuum Spectrometry
- Shielding Atmosphere for Flushing Molten METALS to Eliminate Porosity
- In Degassing Of Ferrous and Non – Ferrous Alloys
- Aircraft & Missile Industries
- Heat Treatment of Reactive Metals and Alloys