Air

As a source of oxygen, air is essential for combustion, respiration, decay and various industrial processes – including oxidation. Some of these applications call for extremely high levels of purity. As regular ambient air contains a number of impurities, synthetic air is the preferred choice for these applications. This is produced by mixing pure oxygen (20%) with pure nitrogen (80%).

Synthetic Air

Because of its purity, synthetic air is used as a zero gas in the running and calibration of environmental monitoring and test equipment. In fact, it is used as a balance gas in many calibration mixtures. It is also used as an oxidiser for flame ionisation detectors in laboratory research and development. Other applications include medical gas mixtures and atomic absorption flame spectrometry.

Compressed Air

Regular ambient air can also be compressed for a variety of applications where ultra-high purity is not critical. When combined with a fuel gas, compressed air produces a flame with a lower temperature than an oxyfuel flame. An air-fuel flame is suitable for brazing, soldering and carbon coating lower-temperature alloys. Compared with an oxyfuel flame, it gives welders greater control over the thickness of the carbon coat.

Compressed air is also used for pneumatic drills, plasma cutting and metallurgical processes such as die casting and blast furnaces.

Linde supplies compressed and synthetic air in a variety of cylinder types and sizes to meet your individual purity and volume demands.