Shortages in the helium supply and its rising cost have been widely known issues for those working in industries using helium as a process/trace gas. Due to its rising cost, helium users have considered spending money to retrofit their machinery to use other process gases or invest for future savings with helium recovery systems.
In the leak testing industry, many companies have searched for and are using tracer gases other than helium that have produced adequate testing results for their applications. For the last decade, helium has remained the most widely used trace gas in leak testing due to its unique properties; it is non-reactive, and has a very low presence (typically <5 ppm) in the atmosphere.
Many leak test systems currently using helium can be switched over to other gases. Typical examples include a mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen commonly known as forming gas, and others like carbon dioxide and argon.
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