What are the current-day industrial uses of the inert gases?
There are many of these, generally falling into the following categories: 1. Exclusion of air: very important when welding metals that oxidize easily when heated, such as aluminum and copper. Tungsten Inert Gas (T.I.G. or trade name “Heliarc”) and other welding processes use Helium and Argon most commonly. 2. Lighting: Neon signs are still using the inert gas Neon for that bright orange glow. Helium’s yellow glow has been replaced by mercury-vapor phosphor coated tubing as the Helium filled tubes got too hot and failed too quickly. The “Gas Plasma” computer screen display in its monochrome style uses Neon, hence the orange color of the screen. Krypton is added to flashlight and sometimes car headlight and traffic-light bulbs to increase their life and brightness. (The “Krypton Concentrator” inert gas device uses one of these traffic light bulbs. It is a full-sized bulb with a standard “Edison” threaded base.) Xenon is used in some flashlight bulbs, and is commonly found in strobe light
