Plain carbon steel is successfully bright-annealed without discoloration of the steel surface in the atmosphere of converted propan gas, generated in a heated retort in which air-gas reaction takes place in the presence of a nickel catalyst.When the input air-gas ratio is changed from 5 to 15, the costituents of the atmosphere gases which are produced in the conversion furnace, heated at 1000°, 900°, and 800°, have been investigated. As the air-gas ratio is increased, the contents of CO
2, H
2O and N
2 increases and H
2 and CH
4 decreases. As the conversion temperature is increased, the contents of CO and H
2 increases and CO
2, H
2O, and CH
4 decrease. The weight change of the specimens (10 mm dia×12 mm) was studied as a measure of carburization and decarburization, and microscopic structure was also investigated. Controlling the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere gases, low carbon steel is annealed without oxidation in the atmosphere of exothermic gas, and high carbon steel is bright-annealed in that of endothermic gas. The constituents of these gases are as follows: Exothermic gas (air-gas ratio 13,) contains CO
2 6%, CO 12.8%, CH
4 0.5%, H
2 12.8%, N
2 bal. and endothermic gas (air-gas ratio 7.5) contains CO
2 0.0%, CO 23.4%, CH
4 0.9%, H
2 31%, N
2 bal. The conversion temperature of these gases is 930°.
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