Helium shortage & eco welder - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

oil pan 4 · 10-11-2012, 01:23 AM

Anyone else having difficulty getting it?

I was told its being used up by flat screen TV manufacture.

Any one else got any conspiracy theories on it?
The nearest gas bottle dealer with any helium is roughly 400 miles away.

JellyBeanDriver · 10-11-2012, 02:37 AM

We use lots of it at work - testing vacuum packages for hermiticity. Truck comes in, swaps several arrays of helium bottles (3x3 or 4x3 array, forget which).

gone-ot · 10-11-2012, 11:59 AM

Both the USN and civilian aero industry are getting interested in BLIMPS again, which use LOTs of helium.

Also, FWIW, helium is considered to be a "National Strategic Commodity" by our gov't and is regulated and controlled.

I vaguely recall New Mexico being one major source.

UFO · 10-11-2012, 12:21 PM

Helium is non-renewable. I wonder when we can start producing power using fusion, that will make helium widely available.

Piwoslaw · 10-11-2012, 04:42 PM

There's a bunch on the Moon...

oil pan 4 · 10-11-2012, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

Also, FWIW, helium is considered to be a "National Strategic Commodity" by our gov't and is regulated and controlled.

I vaguely recall New Mexico being one major source.

Yes, I thought there was a depleted natural gas field some where in the mid west that was helium was fed into and stored.
I thought NM was a major source of helium too. Its found with natural gas, which we have a lot of.

euromodder · 10-11-2012, 07:21 PM

Most of it is wasted.
It's going up the drain in kiddie balloons, lost as a carrier in GC appliances , lost on people talking funny, bubbles up from deep-sea diving ...

oil pan 4 · 10-11-2012, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by euromodder

Most of it is wasted.
It's going up the drain in kiddie balloons, lost as a carrier in GC appliances , lost on people talking funny, bubbles up from deep-sea diving ...

I was planning on using alittle bit as a shielding gas for welding stainless steel and maybe aluminum.
And doing a tire experement.
Purge and Fill one trailer tire with 55psi of argon (a slow gas) and the other with 55psi of helium (conducts heat 6 times faster than air and something like 8 to 10 times faster than argon) and use my inferred temperature gun to try and detect a difference in tread temperature between the 2 tires after driving.

Ryland · 10-11-2012, 10:30 PM

MRI machines use a lot of it to keep the super conductors cold enough to work, it's also used in welding Titanium and a bunch of other scientific stuff.
It's mixed with natural gas and is stored under ground, so as we run out of natural gas we run out of helium.

gone-ot · 10-11-2012, 10:48 PM

...the aerospace industry uses a LOT of Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) for cooling, but in 38 years I've only seen Helium used once (besides Kiddies ballons).