Acetylene is a high-performance fuel gas traditionally produced by the reaction of calcium carbide with water.

The range of applications for acetylene is enormous: It is used in oxyfuel technology, welding and cutting, as well as in flame blasting, flame spraying, flame straightening or gouging.

The most important chemical property of argon is its inertness. This makes argon an ideal shielding gas - even at high temperatures, as are common in metallurgy and arc welding.

The special properties of carbon dioxide include its inertness and high solubility in water. Carbon dioxide gives beverages their sparkling freshness, helps in drinking water treatment and offers an alternative to aggressive acids in waste water neutralization. In cryogenic form, CO₂ becomes dry ice, which is suitable as a refrigerant or cleaning medium for dry ice blasting.

Due to its special properties, the noble gas helium is indispensable for many applications, such as superconductivity, as a buoyancy gas for balloons and airships, as a shielding gas for welding, as a tracer gas for leak detection or as a carrier gas in gas chromatography.

The most important property of oxygen is its reactivity. There are only a few elements with which oxygen does not combine. Oxidation and combustion processes occur much faster in an atmosphere enriched with oxygen than in air. Due to this property, oxygen is indispensable for the metabolism of many organisms, which is why it is used for numerous applications in water treatment and environmental technology.

In industry and research, nitrogen is used as a refrigerant or inert gas. After use it returns unchanged into the atmosphere.

For a long time, hydrogen was used primarily as a fuel gas for special applications, as a protective gas in heat treatment, and as a cooling gas. By far the largest proportion of hydrogen, however, was required for the synthesis of ammonia and methanol. The chemical industry also uses it for numerous hydrogenation processes. Today, green hydrogen produced with the help of renewable energies is considered an important lever for decarbonizing industry and mobility.

Liquid helium has a boiling point of approximately 4 Kelvin, the lowest of all gases. This makes it the coldest liquid known and therefore an optimal coolant for producing extremely low temperatures. Liquid helium is predominantly used to cool superconducting magnets, for example in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and various research applications, including particle accelerators.

Many processes in research and industry require gases with very low and defined residual impurities. Whether it be for laser applications or for quality and environmental analysis, Messer will supply you with the right product in the required quality and with the optimum supply method for every application:

• Argon up to 6.0
• Helium up to 6.0
• Carbon dioxide up to 5.5
• Oxygen up to 5.5
• Nitrogen up to 6.0
• Hydrogen up to 6.0

Noble gases and noble gas mixtures are predominantly used as lamp filling gases and in laser technology, while krypton is an optimal filling gas for double glazing:

• Neon
• Krypton
• Xenon

Many applications, such as laser and analytical instrument operation, banana ripening or fire extinguishing, require gas mixtures whose composition is always the same. Messer therefore offers you a wide range of defined standard mixtures:

• Synthetic air
• Helium/hydrogen
• Argon/methane
• Laser mixtures
• Banana ripening gas
• Extinguishing gases
• etc.

Messer will also gladly prepare gas mixtures in accordance with your individual specifications. Such custom-made mixtures are mainly used as test and calibration gases for analytical purposes. These may consist of a large number of possible components and range from percentage to ppb levels. We also offer the option of an accredited certificate.

Messer supplies small volumes of laboratory gases, including both pure gases and mixtures, in pressure cans. Our portfolio also includes the appropriate withdrawal systems and gas repurification systems.

Messer offers an extensive spectrum of other specialty gases for a wide range of applications:

• Hydrocarbons
• Acetylene
• Butane
• Ethylene
• Methane
• Propane
• Propylene
• etc.