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

Air Products Expands Operations in South China

Air Products has opened a cryogenic air separation plant in the Guangdong Province of South China. The facility will produce both gaseous oxygen and nitrogen in a modular space that allows for easier field installation and requires less land, according to the company.

LArIAT Upgrade Tests DUNE Design

Scientists from the LArIAT experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have begun a proof-of-concept test for the planned Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). The researchers studying what will happen if the space between detection wires inside the future DUNE detectors is increased from three millimeters to five, a design that...

GE Healthcare Acquires Cryogenic Cold Chain Specialists

GE Healthcare has acquired Asymptote Limited, a company specializing in cryochain technology for sensitive cellular therapies. The acquisition fills a critical gap in GE Healthcare’s end-to-end ecosystem of products and services for cell therapy production, according to GE, and will be an important piece of a portfolio enabling the industrialization...

A Silver Snoopy for Valcor Top Dog

In a March ceremony, NASA presented Valcor's Yuri Gerasimov with its Silver Snoopy, an award given to candidates who have significantly contributed to the human space flight program. Less than one percent of the aerospace program workforce receives the Silver Snoopy annually, making the award a special honor. Gerasimov played...

New Material Raises Questions About Theoretical Model of Superconductivity

The US Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has successfully created the first pure, single-crystal sample of a new iron arsenide superconductor, CaKFe4As4, and studies of this material have called into question some long-standing theoretical models of superconductivity.

The Life of an Accelerator

Tens of thousands of accelerators exist around the world, producing powerful particle beams for the benefit of medical diagnostics, cancer therapy, industrial manufacturing, material analysis, national security and nuclear as well as fundamental particle physics. Particle beams can also be used to produce powerful beams of X-rays.

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Mixed Refrigerant Cycles

Most cryogenic refrigeration systems, both large scale systems and cryocoolers, use helium as a working fluid. There are a number of advantages to helium, not the least of which is that helium remains a fluid down to the lowest achievable temperatures. In order to freeze helium, pressures of over 20...

Fountain Pumps and He II Phase Separators

Helium II (He II), the second liquid phase of the 4He isotope described in this column in Cold Facts Spring 2010 (http://2csa.us/he2), can be modeled as consisting of two interpenetrating fluids. One, the superfluid component, has zero viscosity and entropy and the other, the normal fluid component, has nonzero viscosity...

Turboexpanders

A vital technology in the refrigerators and liquefiers described in Cold Facts Volume 31 Number 3 is that of turboexpanders. These devices are rotating machines in which the process fluid (e.g., helium) does work against the turboexpander while moving from high pressure to a lower pressure and thus is cooled....

Latest in Cryo Central

Air Separation and Liquefaction

by Nils Tellier, PE, President, EPSIM Corporation (CSA CSM) nils@epsim.us All illustrations courtesy EPSIM Corporation Background History of Air Separation and Liquefaction This section builds on a rich history of methods to develop deep refrigeration and cryogenic liquefaction during the 19th Century. You are encouraged to read Cryo Central’s History...

Bose-Einstein Condensate

A Bose-Einstein condensate, first proposed in 1925 by Albert Einstein based on work done by Satyendra Nath Bose (the same Bose from whom the term boson is derived), is a super-cold state of matter in which almost all of the individual atoms have “condensed” down to the lowest possible quantum...

Cold Technology for Pest Control

While it does not reach temperatures cold enough to be called cryogenic, carbon dioxide snow is at the heart of a new way of dealing with unwanted pests. It utilizes a quick freezing process that takes advantage of the properties of carbon dioxide snow and has a number of benefits...

Cryogenic Finishing

The following 3 articles discuss the uses and procedures of various type of cryogenic finishing. 1) By Robin A. Rhodes, Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. rrhodes@nitrofreeze.com Cryogenic Deflashing is employed to remove undesired residual mold flash that remains on molded parts after they are removed or ejected from the...

Latest in Ask the Experts

Any experience with Tungsten or Tantalum metal springs in a low temp environment?

I would like to use metal springs made of Tungsten or Tantalum in low temperature environment. Does anybody have any experience with such springs? More precisely, I would like to make compression springs by rolling tungsten or tantalum wire on a rod. I expect that, typically, the spring constant will...

Standards & specifications for pipe & tube couplings

I am interested in finding out more about cryogenic applications and what standards, specifications and test methods (ASTM, etc.) are required for qualification of pipe and tube couplings.

Looking for a test house to test the static coefficient of friction under cryogenic conditions

I am looking to find a test house that is capable of testing the static coefficient of friction under cryogenic conditions. We can be flexible on most of the test parameters, including the test coupon configuration, but we’re looking for a test house that can provide the following test environment:...

Approximating pressure changes over time in cryogenic cylinders

I am an Air Resources Engineer with the California Air Resources Board (CARB). My senior management has asked me to investigate approximating pressure changes over time in cryogenic cylinders that contain LNG. So far, I have taken a stab at the problem, seeking to take a back-of-the-envelope approach (as directed...

CATEGORIES