RMA provides helium (He) for a variety of uses in whatever purity needed. We provide high-pressure gas cylinder and liquid cylinder containers large enough to cool a particle collider or an MRI magnet, and small enough to use for balloons at your next party.
The inert gas can chill temperatures to near absolute zero. Various usages include: pressurizing and leak detection; balloon inflation; fiber optics; and glass production. Helium, however, is more than balloons, but operates within medical, technology, manufacturing, and aerospace industries. Helium is often mixed with other gases, like oxygen, in treatments for respiratory ailments like asthma and emphysema, and breathing cylinders for deep sea dives.
Where is helium found and how is it harvested? Helium is a component of natural gas production and is found within subterranean reserves in places rich in oil like Wyoming, Algeria, Qatar, and Russia. As a non-renewable resource, the helium market frequently undergoes global shortages that disrupt its essential industry applications. Partnering with a helium supplier like RMA can ensure that you have the supplies of helium gas that you need when you need it. Our dedication to flawless dependability prioritizes our partners when shortages arise.
We can provide the quantities you need, when you need it.
The most visible use of helium is in party balloons and blimps that carry people. Although hydrogen is a marginally lighter gas, helium is non-flammable and therefore a safer choice. Blimps, or airships, are used to lift and transport heavy cargo such as oil rigs, ships, and tanks. Helium is even used as a lifting gas to inflate the giant characters gliding around New York City at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The exacting nature of space operations demands a high level of precision in leak detection and pressurization. Satellite and telescope missions may also use helium as a coolant for the telescope technology to generate imaging. Instruments that detect infrared light function at subzero temperatures to slow down busy electrons, allowing for a conversion of wavelengths that would otherwise be too fast for the human eye to see.
Lighter than air, helium as a lifting gas also elevates gas balloons: weather balloons, and those operated by NASA for space exploration. NASA balloons take measurements, collect data, and even discover new planets in the galaxy.
Much like with the aerospace industry, helium is used in the electronics industry for leak detection and purging of other gases. Helium creates the perfect inert environment to produce semiconductor chips. Semiconductor production itself accounts for close to 6% of total helium usage.
Helium is used in various steps of the semiconductor production process for cooling, cleaning, and creating the ideal environment in vacuum chambers for chemical reactions to take place. It is estimated that a single tank of helium gas can produce 10,000 computer hard drives. The brains within automobiles, computers, and smartphones – semiconductor chips – was the last major market boom in the helium market.