Fiber Optics

Argon

Argon, an inert gas, is commonly used in applications across metals production operations to improve quality, and increase efficiency and yield.
Helium

Helium, an inert gas, is used for quenching, cooling, leak detection, and plasma applications.
Hydrogen

Valued for its reactive and protective properties, and used by many industries such as electronics, foods, glass, chemicals, refining and more can benefit from its unique properties to improve quality, optimize performance and reduce costs.
Nitrogen

Nitrogen is routinely used in applications across foundries, integrated and mini mills, specialty/stainless, and non-ferrous metals production operations.
Oxygen

Oxygen can improve combustion through increased heat transfer, higher flame temperatures, and reduced volume of fuel gases in metals production operations.

With helium in short supply globally, are there other gases or alternatives that I can use for my fiber pulling operation?

As the global supply of helium struggles to cope with the increased demand for this gas, here are two potential alternatives:

You can blend argon with the helium, with argon at 20% and helium at 80%.This will reduce your helium usage; however, you will most likely need to slightly reduce your pull speed rate. A blending system will be required to accurately blend these gases for peak performance.
If your only choice is to use 100% helium, you can work with your gas supplier to understand if the helium can be recovered and recycled for reuse in your fiber pull operation.This will require modifications of the cooler tubes and associated equipment to remove the moisture and oxygen in the recovered helium.