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

HEPTech: where academia meets industry

The high energy physics technology transfer network, or HEPTech, aims to bring together leading European high energy physics research institutions to provide academics and industry with a single point of access to the skills, capabilities, technologies and R&D opportunities of the high energy physics community in a highly collaborative open-science...

Elsevier’s new open access journal Heliyon now accepting submissions

Elsevier has announced the call for submissions for its new open access journal Heliyon. The journal will be a publishing platform for sound research developed in collaboration with the research community so as to offer researchers a new publishing option tailored to their needs.

US scientists celebrate the restart of the LHC

After two years of upgrades and repairs to the world's most powerful particle accelerator, proton beams once again circulated around the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). With the collider back in action, the more than 1,700 US scientists who work on LHC experiments are prepared to join thousands of their international...

NASA awards contract for test facilities operations, maintenance and engineering

NASA has selected HX5 Sierra, LLC, of Fort Walton Beach FL to provide operations, engineering and maintenance support services test facilities and laboratories for the agency's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and Plum Brook Station in Sandusky OH.

NASA Glenn celebrates Hubble’s 25th anniversary

NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland OH is celebrating the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope 25 years ago this April with several activities for children and adults to learn more about Hubble's amazing contributions over the last quarter century.

The dawn of DUNE

The neutrino experiment formerly known as LBNE has transformed. Since January, its collaboration has gained about 50 new member institutions, elected two new spokespersons and chosen a new name: Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE. The proposed experiment will span 800 miles and will be the most powerful tool in...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigeration

Reaching temperatures below 1K requires different techniques than the various helium gas cycles found in large scale refrigeration plants and small cryocoolers. One of these techniques is Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigeration (ADR). This technique takes advantage of the fact that the entropy of paramagnetic materials in a magnetic field is lower than...

Cryogen-Free

A cryogen is any fluid that operates at cryogenic temperatures (below roughly 150K – 120K). Using this definition, helium gas at 40K is a cryogen. Another more restrictive definition is to use cryogen to refer specifically to liquids at cryogenic temperatures. This is generally how it is used in the...

Cryostats and Cryocoolers

A cryostat is any device designed to maintain things (including fluids) at cryogenic temperatures. In general usage, cryostats tend to be passive devices rather than providing active cooling. In this usage, cryostats keep things cold by thermally isolating them from room temperature. This generally is accomplished by a combination of...

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

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