To those of you who are ordering gases for your labs or for the facility, how do you know what grade of gas is appropriate for the application? Are you allowing the people in the labs to “pick” the grade of gas they want? Did you know that there are as many as 12 or more grades of Nitrogen and just as many grades of Helium?
My experience of over 25 years in the gas industry, has shown that the end users want to be sure they get the best grade of gas at any cost. My experience has also shown me that 95% of the time, this logic delivers the wrong grade of gas to the application as the user is over buying by hundreds of dollars for the gas and is seeing none of the value. The gas industry has always had a smoke and mirrors glow where the grades of gases were concerned. It was always sort of a fuzzy area for buyers. Naming gases seems to lure people to buy high. A Research Grade Helium sounds great to a researcher, they must have made that grade just for him! How about a Scientific Grade, pretty attractive name for a Scientist right? The truth is that if you really don’t need the extreme quality of these gases, you are overbuying dramatically.
Make sure you are buying your gases from a supplier that can address the exact quality each grade of gas offers so you are buying exactly the right gas for the application. Your supplier should be familiar with the equipment used in the labs, GC, Incubators, Mass Spec., NMR and the list goes on.
Not all gas suppliers are the same and not all gases are the same. It takes an expert to identify the right gas for the application. An expert will be more interested in supplying the “right” gas than in making the sale. More sales will come down the road to a gas specialist who can deliver service with the purchase. So stop the guess work in ordering gases, call an expert at Middlesex Gases & Technologies. We are in your service.
