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ASC to Hold All-virtual Conference October 24-November 7

The 2020 Applied Superconductivity Conference (ASC) will be held virtually over two weeks beginning October 24 and will offer a combined virtual platform for plenary, oral and poster presentations, a conference exhibition, a new program for young professionals called ELEVATE, virtual breakouts, coffee breaks and other features.

A Quantum Thermometer to Measure the Coldest Temperatures in the Universe

On August 20, Trinity College Dublin announced that physicists from the college have proposed a thermometer based on quantum entanglement that can accurately measure temperatures a billion times colder than those in outer space. These ultracold temperatures arise in clouds of atoms, known as Fermi gases, which are created by...

Lake Shore Cryotronics Acquires Janis Research’s Laboratory Cryogenics Business

On August 5, Lake Shore Cryotronics (CSA CSM) announced the acquisition of Janis Research’s Laboratory Cryogenics (CSA CSM) business—a move that unites two of the world’s foremost providers of cryogenic and material characterization solutions for low temperature research. The acquisition of the Woburn MA-based business allows Lake Shore to now...

Barber-Nichols Wins 2020 CMA Aerospace Manufacturer of the Year Award

Barber-Nichols, a supplier of electronics enhanced turbomachines and turbomachine-based subsystems for the aerospace, defense and cryogenics industries, was named one of the winners of the fifth annual Colorado Manufacturing Awards (CMA)—hosted by CompanyWeek and Manufacturers Edge, a NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership partner—as “Aerospace Manufacturer of the Year.” Winners were announced...

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Dewar

A dewar is a type of cryostat named after Sir James Dewar, the researcher who first developed the concept of a vacuum insulated container with silvered walls to reflect thermal radiation. Dewar was the first to liquefy hydrogen, and he created the device to store his discovery. The thermos bottle...

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon Cryocoolers

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocoolers are two of the most commonly used cryocoolers in cryogenics. Both devices have a significant industrial base and operate at a wide range of temperatures and capacities. The thermodynamic cycles for both of these cryocoolers are quite similar. The Stirling cycle consists of a compressor,...

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

A significant commercial application of cryogenics is the liquefaction, transport and storage of natural gas. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is generally 95 percent methane with a few percent ethane and much lower concentrations of propane and butane. LNG liquefies at 111.6 K. Unlike many applications of cryogenics, the motivation for...

Magnets

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. Particle physics uses accelerators to recreate the conditions of the early universe in an attempt to piece together the complex puzzle of how we got to where we are today. These huge machines are used...

Energy Storage

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. With power lines increasingly congested and prone to instability, strategic injection of brief bursts of real power can play a crucial role in maintaining grid reliability. Small-scale Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems, based on...

Astronomy

ASTRONOMY IN SPACE by Peter V. Mason, retired,  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Visiting Associate, California Institute of Technology. Pmason@alumni.caltech.edu In thinking about the reasons to perform astronomy in space, we first consider the effect of the earth’s atmosphere.  On a scale of decreasing energy, gamma rays, cosmic rays, X-rays and...

Cryocoolers

What is a Cryocooler? A mechanism that can extract heat from an object (cooler) and by doing so draw its temperature down below approximately 150 Kelvin (cryo). — (Courtesy Dr. Willy Gully) What is the difference between a Cryocooler and a Cryostat? A cryostat is any device designed to maintain...

Suppliers of regenerator materials

I was looking for suppliers of regenerator materials. Can you please provide a list of vendors for: • Lead spheres • Bronze screen discs • Rare earth materials and spheres Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Containing ice accumulation while recovering helium

We are implementing a system to recover helium from our Janis ST-500 continuous flow LHe cryostat. The recovery system uses standard 1/4″ plastic tubing, which we connect directly to the cryostat’s exhaust port. The problem with this setup is that the gas is still quite cold as it leaves the...