Electricity arcing

The original method for the manufacture of ethyne, the action of water on calcium carbide, is still of very great importance, but newer methods include the pyrolysis of the lower paraffins in the presence of steam, the partial oxidation of natural gas (methane) and the cracking of hydrocarbons in an electric arc. 

The boron so obtained is an amorphous powder. It can be obtained in the crystalline state by reducing the vapour of boron tribromide with hydrogen, either in an electric arc or in contact with an electrically-heated tungsten filament ... 

Aluminium nitride can also be prepared by heating a mixture of aluminium oxide and carbon in nitrogen in an electric arc furnace ... 

If an excess of magnesium is used, magnesium silicide, Mg2Si, is also produced.) The silicon obtained is a light brown hygroscopic powder. Crystalline or metallic silicon is obtained industrially by the reduction of silica with carbon in an electric arc furnace ... 

There are other characteristics of quadrupoles that make them cheaper for attainment of certain objectives. For example, quadrupoles can easily scan a mass spectrum extremely quickly and are useful for following fast reactions. Moreover, the quadrupole does not operate at the high voltages used for magnetic sector instruments, so coupling to atmospheric-pressure inlet systems becomes that much easier because electrical arcing is much less of a problem. 

Emission spectroscopy is a very useful analytical technique in determining the elemental composition of a sample. The emission may be produced in an electrical arc or spark but, since the mid-1960s, an inductively coupled plasma has increasingly been used. 

FURNACES,ELECTRIC - ARC FURNACES] (Vol 12) egulatory agencies piEGULATORY AGENCIES - POWER GENERATION] (Vol 21) [FURNACES,ELECTRIC - RESISTANCEFURNACES] (Vol 12)... 

In arc welding, the coalescence of metals is achieved through the intense heat of an electric arc, which is estabUshed between the base metal and an electrode. The processes Hsted in Table 1 are differentiated by various means of shielding the arc from the atmosphere (1 3). 

Solidification. The heat of the electric arc melts a portion of the base metal and any added filler metal. The force of the arc produces localized flows within the weld pools, thus providing a stirring effect, which mixes the filler metal and that portion of the melted base metal into a fairly homogeneous weld metal. There is a very rapid transfer of heat away from the weld to the adjacent, low temperature base metal, and solidification begins nearly instantaneously as the welding heat source moves past a given location. 

Health and Safety Factors. Sulfur hexafluoride is a nonflammable, relatively unreactive gas that has been described as physiologically inert (54). The current OSHA standard maximum allowable concentration for human exposure in air is 6000 mg/m (1000 ppm) TWA (55). The Underwriters Laboratories classification is Toxicity Group VI. It should be noted, however, that breakdown products of SF, produced by electrical decomposition of the gas, are toxic. If SF is exposed to electrical arcing, provision should be made to absorb the toxic components by passing the gas over activated alumina, soda-lime, or molecular sieves (qv) (56). 

Tetrafluoroethylene was first synthesized in 1933 from tetrafluoromethane, CF, in an electric arc furnace (11). Since then, a number of routes have been developed (12—18). Depolymerization of PTFE by heating at ca 600°C is probably the preferred method for obtaining small amounts of 97% pure monomer on a laboratory scale (19,20). Depolymerization products contain highly toxic perfluoroisobutylene and should be handled with care. 

Fig. 1. Main types of electric furnaces (a) resistance furnace, indirect heat (resistor furnace) (b) resistance furnace, direct heat (c) arc furnace (d) induction furnace. A, charge to be heated or melted B, refractory furnace lining C, electric power supply D, resistors E, electrodes F, electric arc G,...

Electrode Use in Electric Arc Furnaces, Iron and Steel Society, Warrendale, Pa., 1986. 

---