Helium

  A chemically inert gas with the lowest boiling point, Helium is used in a wide array of applications and industries. It serves as a cryogenic agent to cool superconductive magnetic coils in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) medical equipment to ensure the machine functions properly. Aside from that, given its inert properties it can be used to create an inert atmosphere for Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) or Metal Inert Gas (MIG) welding. It is also used for purging, annealing, sputtering, leak checking and etching applications in the Electronics industry. Helium gas with oxygen in diving tanks prevents the narcotic effect of nitrogen in deep waters. Industries with operations offshore rely on diving gases and breathing mixtures for subsea work.

  Air Liquide engineers various grades of pure helium under the ALPHAGAZ™ brand. ALPHAGAZ™ 1 grade of pure helium has a purity of 99.9995%. ALPHAGAZ™ 2 is ultra-pure at 99.9999%, perfect for critical laboratory and analytic applications. Both ALPHAGAZ™ grades of helium come in compressed gas cylinders equipped with ergonomic open caps and SMARTOP™ valves.