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Northrop Grumman successfully completes spacecraft critical design review for JWST

Northrop Grumman Corporation successfully passed the last significant mission design milestone for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the spacecraft Critical Design Review (CDR), five months ahead of schedule, following the replan.

16th Intl. Conference on RF Superconductivity held in Paris

Ah, Paris! The City of Lights was the setting for the SRF 2013 conference, held Sept. 22-27. The conference was the latest continuation of a series started in 1980 at Karlsruhe as a small workshop, and has grown to 412 attendees, featuring an exhibition with 20 industrial exhibitors, and offering...

Education in Cryogenics, Superconductivity: Some Updates

The following are some recent updates and additions to the information offered at CSA’s website about educational opportunities in cryogenics and superconductivity, both in classrooms and nontraditional settings, in the US and around the world.

Registration Open for ‘Foundations of Cryocoolers’ Short Course at ICC18

Registration is now open for the “Foundations of Cryocoolers” short course to be held on Monday, June 9, 2014, right before the 18th International Cryocoolers Conference (ICC18). The conference will be held June 9-12 at Syracuse University, Syracuse NY. Conference Chairman is Rich Dausman of Cryomech, Inc. and Co-Chair is...

US Gov’t Shutdown Affects Cryo, Superconductivity

In October, it would have been hard to miss the news of the 16-day US federal government shutdown, even for those located outside of the United States. The shutdown came as a result of Congress’ inability to enact legislation appropriating funds for fiscal year 2014 or to agree on a...

Use of fiberglass in the LNG market

I am doing a bit of market research on the use of fiberglass in the LNG market. What is the type and weave of fiberglass used in LNG manufacturing? Is it used aesthetically or is there an actual technical purpose for the fiberglass, such as insulation? Can you name the...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Dilution Refrigerators

Dilution refrigerators are a common technique for reaching temperatures below 1K, particularly where continuous cooling at these temperatures is required. Helium exists in two stable isotopes: 4He and 3He. Naturally occurring 3He is extremely rare, constituting less than 1 part per million of helium gas. However, 3He can be manufactured,...

Oxygen Deficiency Hazards

Oxygen Deficiency Hazards (ODH) are a significant safety issue in cryogenic facilities. ODH occurs when inert gases such as nitrogen, helium or argon displace room air and thus lower the percentage of oxygen in the space below that required for human life. OSHA defines an area as oxygen deficient if...

Kelvin Temperature Scale

The Kelvin temperature scale is the principal temperature scale used in cryogenics and science. The kelvin is also one of the seven base units in the Système International d’Unités (SI) and is the unit of thermodynamic temperature. Thermodynamic temperature is a fundamental physical quantity (like mass, length or electrical current)...

Latest in Cryo Central

Primary Standards

Elie K. Track Hypres, Inc. elie@hypres.com http://www.hypres.com/ Primary standards involve the exact definition and realization of units of measurement for various quantities, time, length, mass, voltage, resistance, current, etc. International agreements based on the latest scientific knowledge define those units, and their realizations vary depending on the unit itself. For...

Shrink Fitting

Robin A. Rhodes Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. rrhodes@nitrofreeze.com Shrink fitting, (or “compression fitting” as it is sometimes called), is a method used to insert a pin or bushing into a housing or other assembly requiring an extremely tight tolerance fit. It can be used as an alternative to...

Telecommunications

From the Winter 2004 issue of Cold Facts magazine The recent M-Calc IV — 4th Industry Assessment workshop discussing military and commercial applications for low-cost cryocoolers, held in November in San Diego, highlighted progress being made in cryogenics as applied in telecommunications. The reliability and long lifetime of projects now...

Wind Tunnels

Dr. Robert Kilgore The development of the cryogenic wind tunnel is one of many significant breakthroughs in both cryogenics and wind-tunnel technology made during the past millennium. Interest in the development of high-speed commercial and military aircraft resulted in a review of problems of flow simulation in transonic wind tunnels...

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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