Gases are ‘slippery’ and they behave with ‘Brownian motion’ – that is, they fill every corner of every space and try to go everywhere. Gases kept within a container or gas supply system are constantly seeking ways to escape – and other gases present in the atmosphere are, equally, trying to enter the container or system.
Unintended mixtures and contamination of gases is not what a gas company or client wants to achieve and use of the correct regulators and valves can help to keep gases under control.
Escaping gas can potentially cause serious health, safety and environmental issues, in addition to obvious financial implications (wasted gas means wasted money). Gas entering the cylinder or the supply system can cause contamination to the system and increase the risk of failure to whatever task is trying to be achieved.
In particular, when we look at specialty gases applications, high purity gases with low parts per million (ppm) levels of impurities are often involved – and these extremely low impurity levels are easily destroyed by contamination. When calibration of instruments is involved, highly sensitive and high precision gas mixtures with intentional ppm and parts per billion (ppb) or parts per trillion (ppt) levels of calibration components are used – and these can be depleted by reaction with contaminant gases.
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