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Managing of helium orders

The helium officer Rüdiger Rink is responsible for ordering and managing helium, Dominik Muth (working group Halbleiterspektroskopie) is the deputy helium officer.

Dear colleagues,

 Due to current global developments but also due to developments within the Department of Physics that have led to a significant decrease in helium consumption, the previously applicable helium guidelines have been updated and adapted to these new circumstances as follows:

 1. Approval of individual helium requests by the dean is no longer required.

 2. Helium orders will be placed only once a month and have to be coordinated via the deputy helium officer, Dominik Muth (working group Halbleiterspektroskopie).

 3. Rüdiger Rink, helium officer, and Dominik Muth, deputy helium officer, are authorized to order from Air Liquide.

 4. Working groups should not place orders directly with Air Liquide. If a working group places an order directly, costs will be charged to the cost center of the respective group.

 5. Delivered canisters have to be collected by the following Monday at the latest. The helium officer will load and label the canisters promptly after delivery. Uncollected 50-liter canisters (100-liter canisters) will be invoiced 30 euros (60 euros) for each week, starting on the first Tuesday after delivery. The head of the working group can choose to which of their cost centers the invoice shall be posted.

 6. Delivered canisters have to be returned by Monday of the 8th week after delivery at the latest. Canisters that are no longer in use must be returned immediately. In the event of late return, the payment terms of point 5 shall apply.

 7. Canisters delivered but not needed must be released for use by others no later than the Thursday morning of the delivery week.

 8) Released canisters have to be labelled by the new user by Thursday afternoon of the delivery week and collected by Wednesday of the following week at the latest.

 Before a new order is placed, released canisters must be taken first, i.e. the volume of these canisters must be deducted from the order quantity.

 Further information as well as a code of conduct for handling liquid helium can be found in the Betriebsanweisung für den Umgang mit tiefkalt verflüssigten Gasen (operating instructions for handling cryogenic liquefied gases) which, unfortunately, is only available in German.

 Thank you for your understanding.

Kind regards

 Martin Koch

Dean, May 2022