Thank you to everyone who responded. AMMRL is truly a life saver.
It looks like we will be able to get a tank and avoid disaster. Maybe a ripple from my email helped A-OX find more helium?
Below are a listed of helpful suggestions:
Call a local welding supply company, and see if they can get you some liquid helium.
Consider calling one in a nearby bigger city.
Consider calling a not-so-nearby bigger city.
Ask their LHe rate first, then tell them it’s an emergency, and give them a time frame of need.
Contact Bruker - I contacted Broker and they insisted on a one-year contract to fill magnet(s).
Contact surrounding labs and ask to borrow and return the favor when you get yours.
Keep calling all available suppliers and ask for whatever amount they have. Let your suppliers know that you will pay more for this Helium.
Keep the nitrogen level high at all times, it may help with boil off.
Contact smaller suppliers to see if they have reliable access to helium from the major suppliers.
Purchasing helium from other parts of the country and having it FedEx’d.
Depending on how much you can get and how much you need, I would fill one magnet (the most mission critical one), and then distribute the rest of the helium to the other two magnets to buy some time.
That way now you only have to worry about two magnets instead of three.
I think you only choice is to do partial fills for all of them to keep them alive and then work actively to get another shipment ASAP.
We had some supply issues recently. We have a university-wide contract with a supplier, so I reached out directly to the regional manager and mentioned both the high replacement cost of the magnets and that they would be the first supplier in the area to have a client lose a magnet. We were able to get some extra helium from them.
If you don’t already have a contract with one of the suppliers, get one.
Now that Linde’s helium business has been taken over by Messer, try contacting Messer. It may be that they are interested in your market even if Linde wasn’t before.
If you have Bruker magnets, maybe she can contact Bruker. They may be able to get her some Helium. She could also check if surrounding labs may be able to get her some helium.
Liquid helium Vendors:
Linde now known as Messer
Praxair
Matheson
Air Liquide
Air Products
Roberts Oxygen
A-OX wilding supply. Headquartered in Sioux Falls with locations in North Dakota, South Dakota Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska.
From: shore <jay.shore_at_sdstate.edu<mailto:jay.shore_at_sdstate.edu>>
Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at 5:00 PM
To: "ammrl_at_ammrl.org<mailto:ammrl_at_ammrl.org>" <ammrl_at_ammrl.org<mailto:ammrl_at_ammrl.org>>
Subject: AMMRL: no liquid helium?
Howdy,
I have been told by our facilities manager that She can not get enough liquid helium for our 3 NMR magnets. She has contacted both A-Ox and Praxair.
Does anyone have any ideas of what we can do?
Thank you very much.
Jay
--
Jay Shore
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
South Dakota State University
Brookings, SD 57007
Received on Thu Oct 17 2019 - 08:53:11 MST