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Remembering our Friend, Ray Radebaugh (1939-2026)

The cryogenics community lost one of its most influential figures with the passing of Ray Radebaugh in February 2026. Over a career spanning more than five decades, Radebaugh helped shape modern cryogenic engineering through pioneering research, devoted mentorship and an unwavering willingness to share knowledge. His work on cryocoolers, dilution...

Cryogenics in Motion: Spaceline Delivers Advanced Nitrogen Trailer for NASA Armstrong

Spaceline Technologies, a fluid system engineering and manufacturing company, has completed a cryogenic nitrogen transport and supply trailer for NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. This trailer is a mobile and standalone solution to provide pressure regulated nitrogen gas and liquid with flowrate and temperature control. Control of the trailer can...

Cryogenics and the Road to Superconducting Propulsion: Part I for Aircrafts

by Quan-Sheng Shu, cryospc.com and Jonathan Demko, Le Tourneau University Superconducting (SC) motors are pivotal for future transportation, offering power densities exceeding 20 kW/kg. Cooling philosophies diverge by architecture: partially superconducting aircraft designs (like NASA’s HEMM) utilize integrated mechanical cryocoolers for the rotor, whereas fully superconducting aircraft favor liquid hydrogen...

Pelican Wire Designs for Cryogenic and Extreme Energy Systems

As renewable energy, electrification and advanced research technologies continue to expand, the demands placed on wire and cable systems are evolving just as rapidly. Higher power densities, tighter system integration and increasingly extreme operating environments are pushing manufacturers beyond traditional commodity wire solutions. Caleb Lemmons, Business Development Manager at Pelican...

Meet the 2026 Young Professionals

This feature introduces outstanding young professionals (under 40 years of age) who are doing interesting things in cryogenics and superconductivity and who show promise of making a difference in their fields. Debuted in the 2006 issue, the feature has presented many young persons whom we are proud to see have...

Extraterrestrial Specifications for Cryogenic Fluid Production

by Wesley Johnson, NASA Glenn Research Center Here on our home planet, where we have been liquefying various “permanent gasses” since 1877 [1], most of us take it for granted that when we go out to buy a cryogenic liquid (or even a pure gas) we don’t have to write...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Two-Phase Flows

Two-phase flows are those flows in which there is a mixture of two physical states (solid, liquid or vapor). In cryogenic applications, such flows are almost always a mixture of a cryogenic liquid along with its corresponding vapor. A mixture of liquid helium and helium vapor would be a typical...

Supercritical Fluids

A supercritical fluid is defined as a substance whose temperature and pressure exceed those of its critical point. Every pure substance has a critical point that is defined in thermodynamic space by a critical temperature and a corresponding critical pressure. For example, the critical point for helium has a critical...

Brayton Cycle

The Brayton cycle is one of the many thermodynamic cycles used to generate cooling at cryogenic temperatures. Strictly speaking, when referring to cooling we should call this the reverse Brayton cycle as the original Brayton cycle describes the process of power generation or propulsion via a gas turbine. In many...

Latest in Cryo Central

Cryogenic Treatment of Materials

F.J. Diekman Controlled Thermal Processing, Inc. info@metal-wear.com Cryogenic Processing (also called cryogenic treatment, and incorrectly “cryogenic tempering”) is a process that uses cryogenic temperatures to modify materials to enhance their performance. Cryogenic Processing involves the slow reduction in temperature of the material to at least -300°F (-185°C) and holding the...

Cryogenics in Space

Peter Kittel University of California-Berkeley pkittel@cal.berkeley.edu Space Cryogenics is the application of cryogenics to space missions. These applications fall into two broad areas, supporting space science missions and supporting the space transportation infrastructure. Science applications: The atmosphere is opaque to much of the electro-magnetic spectrum. In space, the absence of...

Cryosurgery

Review of Cryosurgery Boris Rubinsky, PhD Hebrew University School of Science and Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Engineering 78b Ross Building Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904 Israel rubinsky@cs.huji.ac.il as published in Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, August 2000, Vol. 2, pp. 157-187. Abstract: Cryosurgery is a surgical technique that employs freezing...

Liquefied Natural Gas

Liquefied Natural Gas as it relates to the Field of Cryogenics John W. Bonn VJ Systems, LLC johnbonn@vjsystems-lic.com Today the world is looking for a cleaner fuel and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plays a large part in achieving this goal. LNG in a liquid form is at -162°C (-259°F) and...

Latest in Ask the Experts

An Issue of Pressure and Flow Rate in a Supply Tank

Please help solve this problem: A supply tank requires a vaporizer to generate sufficient pressure to pump stored fluid up into a vehicle or tank. The available head is limited as the tank level falls and it is important to minimize the system pressure drop to maintain the desired flow...

Using MLI on VJ Line Joints or Cryo Storage Tanks

When installing Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) blankets on VJ line joints or cryo storage tanks should they be wrapped and tied down tight or loose? These are usually pre-cut to size. Also should they have an access hole at the point of where the molecular sieve is installed to help...

Separated layers of ice over a pipe

I want to know that why there are different layers of ice over a pipe carrying a cryogenic fluid, each layer separated with clear marks / lines? What do these layers signify?

Using nitrogen as a cryogen

Is it possible to achieve -200˚C using nitrogen as a cryogen?

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