Nitrogen

That depends on your process. Nitrogen based atmospheres for metals processing have been successfully proven over many years, and due to the enormous range of requirements in furnaces for various materials and surface needs, the use of gas mixtures is now an industry standard. Different products can tolerate differing concentrations of oxidizing components in the furnace atmosphere due to additional reducing or reactive components in the blend. For this reason, the use of on-site generated nitrogen with residual amounts of oxygen can be tolerated. By understanding your oxygen tolerance levels we can help you reduce your costs.  For most materials, although free oxygen is not tolerable, some oxidizing impurities may be permitted. In these cases, the on-site production of high purity nitrogen for the heat treatment of very sensitive materials may be commercially viable.