In 1908, on July 10th, Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes finally succeeded in liquefying helium (the last gas ever to be turned into liquid) in his cryogenic lab at the University of Leiden.

After a long day’s work he produced just 60 milliliters, essentially a small tea cup of this precious liquid. That special day proved to be monumental for the development of a brand new research field known now as low temperature physics.

Superconductivity was soon discovered, which in turn led to the development of the high field superconducting magnets that are currently used in all NMR systems.

A constant supply of liquid helium needed periodically to top the cryostat is crucial for the on-going low temperature research.

Since the beginning of January 2015 the cryogenic department has 5 ATL 160 liquefiers and 3 ATP purifiers.

We provide the University of Leiden 25.000 ltr liquid helium/ year.