A process for making clean gas discharge tubes

Tube assemblies of forsterite ceramic and titanium are outgassed and then sealed together with reactive alloys in an atmosphere of the noble gas with which they are to be filled. The gettering action of the hot titanium results in a very pure gas filling. Examples of gas tubes constructed by this new process include voltage regulators, voltage reference tubes, thyratrons, and spark gaps. This method of making ceramic-metal seals in an inert atmosphere may be applied to the production of ceramic-metal sub-assemblies and tube types that do not require gas filling or evacuation at the time of assembly. The fact that a vacuum system is not required to make these seals, and that the cooling time is shorted by convection currents, results in simplification of equipment and reduction of expense and should extend the usefulness of this type of ceramic-metal sealing.