Patent ID: 7034260

Claim:
A method of producing a heating element containing essentially molybdenum silicide and alloys thereof, which forms aluminum oxide on its surface, said method comprising the steps of: producing a material that contains substantially Mo(Si 1-x Al x ) 2 and Al 2 O 3 by mixing a mixture of a silicon and a molybdenum compound with an aluminum compound, wherein the silicon and molybdenum compound mixture is mixed with an aluminum compound including at least one of Al 2 O 3 or Al(OH) 3 , wherein the mixture of a silicon and a molybdenum compound with an aluminum compound includes components that together have a degree of purity corresponding to at least 98%; and reacting the mixture components by at least one of exothermic reaction and sintering so that exchange reactions take place to form the compounds Mo(Si 1-x Al x ) 2 and Al 2 O 3 , where x lies in the range of 0.4–0.6.