On the 112th anniversary of the first liquefaction of helium by the great Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes at the University of Leiden, Quantum Design (QD), together with other cryogenic instrumentation companies and scientific institutions around the world, celebrated 10th July as ‘Helium Conservation Day’. While it might be tempting to dismiss such an effort to increase awareness for helium conservation as a futile but ‘noble cause’, in reality this precious resource is a lifesaver to tens of thousands of global scientists and engineers across the discovery and innovation landscape.
Although recent helium shortages appear to be over, due to a replenished supply, small liquid helium users are not immediately relieved of their supply problems.
Estimates indicate that 1.74 billion cubic feet (bcf), roughly 28%, of worldwide helium gas use is for cryogenic applications, with about 0.24 bcf (4%) specifically for low temperature material science and physics research. It is in this market sector that QD has been serving customers for nearly 40 years as the leading commercial source for automated materials characterisation systems incorporating superconducting technology. These systems offer a variety of measurement capabilities and are in widespread use in the fields of physics, chemistry, biotechnology, materials science, and nanotechnology.
... to continue reading you must be subscribed
