With 26,000 employees and operations in more than 30 countries, Praxair is focused on helping our customers become more profitable, efficient and environmentally friendly. Praxair is a global Fortune 300 company that supplies atmospheric, process and specialty gases, high-performance coatings, and related services and technologies. Among the gases we supply are oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon dioxide, helium and hydrogen.The company’s world-class engineering organization designs, engineers and constructs cryogenic and non-cryogenic supply systems around the world. Praxair Surface Technologies is a subsidiary that applies metallic and ceramic coatings and powders to metal surfaces in order to resist wear, high temperatures and corrosion.The gases and technologies supplied by Praxair are used by a wide variety of industries — to preserve foods, produce computer chips, improve the efficiency of industrial processes, reduce emissions, clean and recycle waste water, treat hospital patients, produce fiber-optics for telecommunications, make cleaner-burning gasoline and diesel fuels, increase energy supplies and put the fizz in soft drinks. We even received an Academy Award for our special effects “synthetic air” used in movies like Spider Man, Armageddon and Bruce Almighty. Praxair is a recognized leader in sustainable development. For nine consecutive years, the company has been selected as a component of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index -- the only U.S. chemical company with this distinction -- and for four consecutive years has been selected for the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index. Praxair adopted its name in 1992, from the Greek word "praxis", or practical application, and "air", our primary raw material. The company was originally founded in 1907 when it was the first company in North America to commercialize cryogenically separated oxygen.
Over the century of its existence, Praxair has led the development of processes and technologies that have revolutionized the industrial gases industry. The company introduced the first distribution system for liquid gas in 1917, and developed on-site gas supply by the end of WWII. In the 1960s, Praxair introduced non-cryogenic means of air separation, and since then has continued to introduce innovative applications technologies for various industries. The company has over 4,000 patents and pending applications.