Cold Facts Digital – The go-to place for Cryogenics and Superconductivity

FormFactor Acquires High Precision Devices, Expands Cryogenic Test Capabilities

On October 28, FormFactor, a leading provider of essential test and measurement technologies along the full integrated circuit life cycle, announced it had completed the acquisition of High Precision Devices, Inc. (HPD, CSA CSM), a leader in precision cryogenic instruments. Located in Boulder CO, HPD is a respected supplier of...

WOLTE14 Postponed, Offering Virtual Option

Postponed from June 8-11, 2020, to April 12 - 15, 2021, the 14th edition of the Workshop on Low Temperature Electronics (WOLTE-14) will be held in Matera, a unique historical town on the patronage of a UNESCO world heritage site situated in southern Italy. In an announcement made online, the...

Samara Scientists Explore a Cryogenic Engine for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Scientists of the Samara National Research University in Samara, Russia, have started to develop a cryogenic engine that will use liquid nitrogen or liquefied natural gas as fuel. Announced in October, the team hopes that the engine will be able to power environmentally friendly vehicles in specially protected natural areas....

Refrigeration Systems for Quantum, Cryogenic Computing

Advances in quantum computing have been in the news due to the potential for extremely large speedups in solution times of some important applications such as decryption (code breaking), optimization or simulation of molecules and materials in which quantum-mechanical effects are important. Large-scale classical (digital) computers operating at cryogenic temperatures...

Chart Industries Acquires Business Assets from IC Biomedical, Worthington Industries

Chart Industries, Inc., (CSA CSM) announced on November 2 it had completed the acquisition of the microbulk cryogenic tank intellectual property, equipment, and other assets from IC Biomedical (“ICB”), a private entity. Chart acquired the business from IC Biomedical upon ICB’s acquisition of these assets and the cryobiological assets of...

Tengming Shen Wins Cryogenic Society of America’s Roger W. Boom Award, Presented at ASC

Dr. Tengming Shen, staff scientist, Division of Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has been awarded the Roger W. Boom Award by the Cryogenics Society of America. The award was presented November 4 at the virtual 2020 Applied Superconductivity Conference.

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

History of Cryogenics

From the Fall 1999 issue of Cold Facts magazine Millennium Breakthroughs A variety of CSA members give different perspectives on the past millennium: What were the most significant breakthroughs in cryogenics during the past millennium? Prof. R.G. Scurlock, Kryos Technology, scurlock@soton.ac.uk (“Breakthrough” = way through obstacles — Oxford English Dictionary)...

Cryobiology

Andreas Sputtek Past President Society for Cryobiology sputtek@uke.uni-hamburg.de or http://www.sputtek.de/. The word cryobiology (from the Greek words “cryo” = cold, “bios” = life, and “logos” = science) literally signifies the science of life at low temperatures. In practice, this field comprises the study of any biological material or system (e.g.,...

Cryogenic Insulation

James E. Fesmire Cryogenics Test Laboratory NASA Kennedy Space Center james.e.fesmire@nasa.gov Introduction In today’s world, the use of cryogenics and low-temperature refrigeration is taking a more and more significant role. From the food industry, transportation, energy, and medical applications to the Space Shuttle, cryogenic liquids must be stored, handled, and...

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...

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?

CATEGORIES