Celebrating 250 Years of American Innovation

As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, Air Products reflects on its more than eight decades of supporting American industry through innovation, collaboration, and reliability.

Founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1940, the company became part of a period of significant industrial growth in the United States, providing solutions that supported manufacturing. Air Products later expanded to Chattanooga, Tennessee before establishing a long-term home in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, where it continues to be headquartered today. From these early roots, the company built a foundation for growth across industries ranging from metals and energy to technology and space exploration.

Today, Air Products operates in approximately 50 countries around the world, with our teams bringing a commitment to safety, reliability and excellence to our customers and communities. As the U.S. marks its 250th birthday milestone, we are proud to reflect on our role in supporting industry and look to continue to drive progress through innovation in the years ahead.

United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a U.S. space launch company that designs, builds, and operates rockets to deliver critical payloads into orbit for civil, commercial and scientific missions. Headquartered in Centennial, Colorado, with manufacturing operations in Alabama and launch sites in Florida and California, ULA provides assured access to space for the United States. Its launch systems support satellites essential to communications, weather forecasting, and research—contributing to reliable access to space and broader technological progress.

Air Products is proud to have partnered with ULA since its inception in 2006, supporting the reliability, safety, and performance required for successful space missions. Industrial gases and advanced gas equipment from Air Products enable critical space launch, fabrication, and testing operations across ULA’s U.S. footprint. At Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and Cape Canaveral in Florida, Air Products supplies helium and hydrogen to support reliable launch operations, including proprietary helium pumping equipment designed and critical to enhance safety and performance. At a rocket engine testing site in Florida, Air Products delivers gases that meet the highest purity and reliability standards, while in Alabama, nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and helium support precision rocket manufacturing.

By combining ULA’s launch expertise with Air Products’ industrial gas and equipment capabilities, the partnership helps power innovation that supports safe, reliable and high-performance launch operations.

NASA

NASA operates the United States’ civil space and aeronautics programs, conducting development, testing, and space missions from major sites including Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Through programs such as Artemis, the International Space Station, Earth-observing satellites, and planetary exploration, NASA works closely with U.S. aerospace manufacturers, launch providers, and industrial suppliers. These collaborations drive innovation in materials, manufacturing, propulsion, and systems engineering, supporting scientific progress and technological innovation.

Air Products plays a critical role in supporting NASA by supplying the industrial gases that power and enable its missions, including hydrogen, helium, and nitrogen used in launch operations, testing, and manufacturing. At Kennedy Space Center, Air Products completed the first fill of the world’s largest liquid hydrogen sphere, delivering more than 730,000 gallons of hydrogen used with liquid oxygen to fuel cryogenic rocket engines for the Artemis missions. Air Products also supports multiple NASA facilities nationwide, including Marshall Space Flight Center, Stennis Space Center, Ames Research Center, Glenn Research Center, Armstrong Test Facility, Goddard Space Flight Center, and Michoud Assembly Facility, helping ensure consistent performance across the full mission lifecycle.

Together, NASA and Air Products reflect a shared commitment to innovation, advancing science, and enabling continued progress in discovery and exploration.

For generations, the American automotive industry has been a driver of innovation, resilience, and manufacturing advancement. Air Products has been proud to support it every step of the way. From vehicle assembly plants to component manufacturers and battery producers, Air Products supplies the industrial gases, equipment, and expertise that help keep automotive production running safely, efficiently, and reliably across the United States and around the world.

Our gases enable critical processes such as welding, heat treating, metal fabrication, and advanced materials manufacturing. Oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and specialty gases support applications ranging from structural fabrication to advanced materials and battery production. Delivered through reliable supply systems and supported by technical expertise, these solutions help manufacturers improve productivity, maintain consistent quality, and operate efficiently at scale. As the industry evolves, Air Products continues to support manufacturers as they adapt to changes in materials, processes, and production requirements.

Based in the United States since 1940, Air Products combines operational reliability with engineering innovation to help power the vehicles that move us forward. As the only major industrial gas company based in the U.S., Air Products brings a strong commitment to supporting American manufacturing while working closely with automotive customers around the world and helping strengthen the industry for the next 250 years.

The Independent Welding Distributors Cooperative (IWDC) is a U.S.-based, member owned cooperative that supports independent welding and industrial gas distributors across North America. Formed in 1994 and rooted in an industry association dating back to 1948, IWDC was created to help local distributors compete and thrive through shared purchasing, marketing, and operational programs. Today, IWDC members collectively serve a wide range of manufacturing, energy, construction, healthcare, and specialty gas markets—combining local expertise with scale, reliability, and reach.

For more than two decades, Air Products has partnered with IWDC as a trusted industrial gas supplier supporting distributor locations across the United States. Air Products supplies argon, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, helium, and hydrogen for use in diverse manufacturing and industrial applications.  Air Products and IWDC combine their complementary capabilities, giving customers a single, reliable source for a broad range of gas supply modes and welding supplies.

Richard Mansmann, Vice President of Gas Programs at IWDC, captures it well: “Our decades-long association with Air Products has allowed all of us continuing growth year after year, assuring our members and their customers economical, worry-free gas supply.”

Built on trust, safety, and operational reliability, the partnership helps locally owned distributors serve their communities, support regional jobs, and strengthen manufacturing networks.

America’s steelmaking industry has long been central to U.S. industrial growth, supplying the materials that support infrastructure, construction, energy, transportation, and manufacturing. From bridges and buildings to pipelines, vehicles, and equipment, steel helps power the industries that underpin economic activity. As the U.S. marks its 250th anniversary, steelmaking remains a key part of the industrial base that has supported growth and continues to enable progress.

Air Products is proud to support the steelmaking industry as a trusted industrial gas partner, supplying the gases, technologies, and expertise that help mills operate safely, efficiently, and reliably. Oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and argon are used across key steelmaking processes, supporting ironmaking, primary steel production, steel recycling, and downstream operations. Delivered through reliable bulk supply systems and onsite production facilities, these gases help improve productivity, reduce fuel consumption and emissions, maintain consistent quality, and support safe operations in demanding mill environments.

With decades of experience in metals production, Air Products helps steelmakers improve performance and maintain dependable operations. This partnership supports an industry that is fundamental to manufacturing, infrastructure, and jobs, and reflects the role Air Products continues to play in helping the steel industry grow and succeed.

SDI LaFarga Copperworks plays a vital role in advancing a more secure and sustainable supply of recycled copper for U.S. industry. Operating from New Haven, Indiana, the company specializes in reclaiming and refining copper from recycled sources into high-quality rod and wire used across power and infrastructure applications. By converting waste metal streams into premium products, SDI LaFarga helps reduce dependence on imported materials while lowering the environmental impact of copper production. Its work supports the strength of American manufacturing today while helping build a more resilient and efficient industrial future for the generations ahead.

Air Products partners with SDI LaFarga Copperworks to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of its copper recycling operations through advanced industrial gas technologies. By deploying its proprietary Transient Heating burner (THB) oxy-fuel systems, Air Products increases heat transfer to the melt, enabling faster processing of recycled copper while reducing natural gas consumption and associated emissions. Complementing this, SMART technology solutions from Air Products ensure reliable, optimized gas supply, helping to maintain consistent furnace operation and minimize downtime. Together, these innovations enable SDI LaFarga Copperworks to convert scrap copper into high-quality products more efficiently, supporting a more resilient and lower carbon U.S. manufacturing supply chain. As Jerry Evans, President, remarked, “Partnerships like ours with Air Products will continue to drive a more sustainable future.”

Through collaboration and advanced technology, SDI LaFarga and Air Products are helping strengthen a more secure and resilient U.S. copper supply chain for the industries that depend on it.

The aviation industry is a critical driver of economic activity, supporting advanced manufacturing, high-skill jobs, and innovation across commercial and space applications. From large scale aircraft production to highly specialized aerospace systems, these capabilities contribute to connectivity, technological advancement, and industrial progress.

Air Products is proud to support major aviation and aerospace manufacturers as a trusted industrial gas partner. Across multiple large scale production environments, Air Products supplies essential gases that enable round the clock, high precision manufacturing. Helium, nitrogen, and argon are delivered through dedicated bulk supply systems and onsite distribution networks to support processes such as structural and robotic welding, inerting and purging, heat treating, composite fabrication, and leak detection. These systems are designed for reliability, consistency, and tight process control, which are essential requirements in mission-critical aerospace operations.

With decades of experience supporting aerospace customers, Air Products brings deep application expertise, supply reliability, and operational dependability to complex manufacturing environments. Through close collaboration with customers’ engineering, operations, and safety teams, Air Products supports production continuity, quality standards, and performance outcomes that keep the industry flying, building, and advancing.