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

Cryofab Honored by Rothman Institute

The Rothman Institute has nominated Cryofab (CSA CSM), a manufacturer of cryogenic equipment, for New Jersey Family Business of the Year for 2015, recognizing the company's impact on the community and its perseverance, business success and commitment to family.

1st Asian ICMC and CSSJ 50th Anniversary Conference

ICMC (International Cryogenic Materials Conference) and CSSJ (Cryogenics and Superconductivity Society of Japan) have announced a new joint conference to be held during November 2016 in Kanazawa, Japan. Contributed, invited and plenary papers on a wide range of topics will be presented, including superconducting materials, wire, tapes and electronics; low-temperature...

Neutrinos on a Seesaw

Mass is a fundamental property of matter, but there’s still a lot about it we don’t understand—especially when it comes to the tiny masses of neutrinos. An idea called the seesaw mechanism proposes a way to explain the masses of these curious particles. If shown to be correct, it could...

Cornell Researchers Create First Self-Assembled Superconductor

After nearly two decades’ worth of research, a multidisciplinary team at Cornell has created a self-assembled, three-dimensional gyroidal superconductor. Ulrich Wiesner, a materials science and engineering professor who led the group, says it’s the first time a superconductor, in this case niobium nitride (NbN), has self-assembled into a porous, 3-D...

Phosphine as a Superconductor?

Phosphine is one of the newest materials to be named a superconductor, a material through which electricity can flow with zero resistance. Scientists first liquefied phosphine in 2015, squeezing it under high pressure in a diamond vice to achieve superconductivity, and now a group of researchers from the University of...

LHC Art Exhibition Opens at the National Academy of Sciences

While the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is technically tucked away in Geneva, visitors to a new art exhibition in Washington DC may have just been afforded the most unique view available of the facility. “Jonathan Feldschuh: Large Hadron Collider” is a collection of seven paintings inspired by the world’s largest...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

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...

Latest in Cryo Central

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...

Latest in Ask the Experts

Specs and info on turbo expanders

I am a fourth year chemical engineering student doing a design project for the liquefaction of natural gas to DME and we are using a turbo expansion unit. I was wondering whether you would send me some specs and any additional information on turbo expanders that I could use as...

Colleges that offer cryogenic studies

Would you happen to know of any colleges in the US that offer cryogenics as a major? If not, should I major in something like biology or physics before, then branch off to the field of cryogenics? Any information that you could give me would be greatly appreciated, considering this...

Sudden loss of vacuum in LHe storage dewar

I’m trying to find data on what happens when a 100 Liter LHe storage dewar experiences a catastrophic failure such as a sudden loss of vacuum. If anyone has any info on this subject, it would be very helpful.

Data on hardness of Indium?

Where can I find experimental data on the hardness of Indium, as a function of temperature, as well as any existing data on the thermal contact conductance of junctions containing Indium foil, also as a function of temperature?

CATEGORIES