PRESS RELEASE
December 7, 1995
Nobel Prize Discovery
Makes For Welder Protection

It is rather common knowledge that the Nobel Prize for chemistry was given to the scientists Paul Crutzen, Netherlands, Mario Molina, U.S.A, and F. Sherwood Rowland, U.S.A. who discovered and explained how the ozone layer is formed in the atmosphere, and also broken down. What is not so well known is that the same discoveries have resulted in the improved shielding gas Mison for MIG/MAG and TIG welding.

It was back in 1970 that Paul Crutzen demonstrated how nitrogen monoxide (NO) breaks down ozone (O3) into oxygen (O2). Crutzen’s interest in this connection was directed towards the stratosphere more than 12 miles up.
Aga is a gas production company that was quick to see other uses for this discovery in the field of gas-shielded arc welding. The intensive ultra-violet radiation from the arc produces ozone the same way that the sun’s rays do in the stratosphere. Laboratory trials and evaluations have shown that the addition of 0.03 percent of nitrogen dioxide in shielding gas reduced the ozone content during welding by between 50 and 90 percent.
This technique, which was already patented by Aga in 1977, is presently marketed under the trademark Mison shielding gases./ins

Caption:
One of this year's Noble Prize Winners in chemistry, Paul Crutzen from Holland, showed that nitrogen monoxide (NO) breaks down ozone (03) to oxygen (C2). Aga was a gas company that quickly saw an application and developed the shielding gas Mison for gas-shielded arc welding.

For further information, please contact:
Ola Runnerstam
AGA AB
S-181 81 Lidingö, Sweden
Phone +46 8 731 1087
Fax +46 8 767 8144


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