Patent ID: 8053710

Claim:
A method of producing a molybdenum-silicide-based heating element, said method comprising the steps of: providing powdered molybdenum aluminosilicide material; mixing the powdered molybdenum aluminosilicide material with SiO 2 selected from the group consisting of pure SiO 2 , pure aluminum silicate, and silicates in which other substances in the SiO 2 have properties that prevent alloying of the other substances with molybdenum silicide, and with which the symmetry of the crystal lattice of the molybdenum silicide is retained to provide a heating element material mixture, wherein the SiO 2 that is present in the heating element material mixture is at least 98% pure, and wherein the heating element material mixture is free of bentonite and excludes impurities that contain Mg, Ca, Fe, Na, and K; forming a heating element from the heating element material mixture to provide a formed heating element; and sintering the formed heating element, wherein after sintering the formed heating element contains substantially Mo(Si 1-x Al x ) 2 and Al 2 O 3 , wherein x lies in the range of 0.45-0.55, and the sintered heating element includes on its surface an oxide layer consisting essentially of Al 2 O 3 that does not peel from the surface of the sintered heating element under thermal cycling of the sintered heating element between room temperature and about 1500° C., so that heating oven contamination in the form of peeled oxide layer particles from the formed heating element within a heating oven containing the formed heating element is prevented under thermal cycling of the sintered heating element between room temperature and about 1500° C.