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Maglev elevators go up, down and sideways

Elevators are about to get a major upgrade: the ability to go sideways, thanks to magnetic levitation technology. German industrial behemoth ThyssenKrupp is promising that two-axis travel ("the holy grail of the elevator industry") will revolutionize intra-building travel, and that they will have it operational in 2016.

Evidence mounts for quantum criticality theory

A new study by a team of physicists adds to the growing body of evidence supporting a theory that strange electronic behaviors, including high temperature superconductivity and heavy fermion physics, arise from quantum fluctuations of strongly correlated electrons. The study describes results from a series of experiments that tested for...

Charge instability detected across all types of copper-based superconductors

A recent study by physicists from the University of British Columbia and the University of Maryland detected for the first time in electron-doped cuprate superconductors evidence of charge ordering, a phenomenon that appears to compete with superconductivity and reduce the temperature at which cuprates demonstrate superconducting properties. The study's findings...

A 50-Year History of the Extended Bonnet Cryogenic Valve

Many cryogenic products have been developed out of necessity over the past 50 years. One such product is the vacuum jacketed extended bonnet cryogenic valve. Currently there are numerous manufacturers in the US and abroad that have utilized design basics developed over 50 years ago. One of the main contributors...

LHC filled with liquid helium for spring restart

In December 2014 the cryogenics team at CERN finished filling the eight curved sections of the LHC with liquid helium. The LHC ring is now cooled to below 4K (-452˚F). This cool-down is an important milestone in preparing the LHC for its spring 2015 restart, after which physicists plan to...

TRIUMF announces photo contest winners

The results are in from a photo contest organized last fall by TRIUMF (CSA CSM), Canada’s national particle and nuclear physics laboratory, when the lab invited Vancouver-based photographers to tour the facility and submit their images to be judged by the public, TRIUMF scientists and a jury of local experts.

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Cold Compressors

A common way to provide cooling below the normal boiling point of helium (4.2K) is to reduce the pressure above the bath of liquid helium, thus also reducing the bath’s equilibrium saturation temperature. For example, to produce a 1.8K bath of liquid helium, the saturation pressure has to be reduced...

Kapitza Conductance

Kapitza conductance refers to the heat transfer between a solid surface and a fluid that covers that surface. Fundamentally, it describes the inherent difficulty in transferring energy from a solid to the fluid covering the solid surface. This phenomenon was first observed by P. L. Kapitza in 1941 while studying...

Thermosyphons

A thermosyphon (or thermosiphon) is a device that transfers heat via natural convection in a fluid. The natural convection is driven by gravity with the colder, denser fluid flowing downhill and the warmer, less dense fluid flowing back up. Thus, thermosyphons connect an object to be cooled with a reservoir...

Latest in Cryo Central

Cryogenic Electronics

Randall Kirschman, consulting physicist, Mountain View, California ExtElect@gmail.com Cryogenic electronics—the operation of electronic devices, circuits, and systems at cryogenic temperatures—has been a valuable technology for decades. Cryogenic electronics (also referred to as low-temperature electronics, or cold electronics) can be based on semiconductive devices, on superconductive devices, or on a combination...

Particle Physics: High Energy Physics

Cryogenics and High-Energy Physics 1. From symmetry magazine: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000627: Cryogenics is the study of how materials behave at temperatures near absolute zero. In high-energy particle accelerators, such frigid temperatures reduce the electrical resistance of wires in superconducting magnets, increasing the magnet strength and allowing faster particle acceleration. The same holds...

HTS Degaussing Systems

From the Spring 2009 issue of Cold Facts (Volume 25, Number 2): Thanks to a joint project by the US Navy and a number of industry partners, high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology is now at the heart of an advanced degaussing system aboard the USS Higgins at the naval station...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

From http://www.superconductors.org: An area where superconductors can perform a life-saving function is in the field of biomagnetism. Doctors need a non-invasive means of determining what’s going on inside the human body. By impinging a strong superconductor-derived magnetic field into the body, hydrogen atoms that exist in the body’s water and...

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?

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