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SLAC employees witness space shuttle flyover

The space shuttle Endeavour delighted SLAC employees and other northern California crowds on a final flight, atop a customized 747, to its resting place at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it will be on display as a museum exhibit.

Airgas to build new ASU in Chicago area

On September 20, Airgas, Inc. announced plans to build a new air separation unit (ASU) in the Chicago area in order to meet increasing demand for merchant gases in the region. The ASU, which will produce oxygen, nitrogen and argon, is expected to begin production in the fall of 2014.

October 7 is target launch date for resupply mission to ISS

NASA and SpaceX have announced October 7, 2012, as the target launch date for SpaceX's first resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft is scheduled for 8:34 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Norman Augustine to chair Fermilab director search committee

Norman R. Augustine, the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corp., has agreed to chair the search committee for the new Director of Fermilab.

JSC’s historic vacuum chamber ready to test Hubble’s successor

An upgrade eight years in the making is complete, and Johnson Space Center is now home to the only vacuum chamber in the world that is large enough and cold enough to provide a space-like environment for the James Webb Space Telescope.

Fermilab physicists rework plans for LBNE

On August 28, officials from Fermilab presented their revised plan for the first stage of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) to a federal advisory panel.

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Refrigerators and Liquefiers

Two of the most common terms used in cryogenics are “refrigerator” and “liquefier.” These terms describe similar and, as will be seen, in some cases identical components. A refrigerator provides cooling (that is, absorbs heat) at cryogenic temperatures. Refrigerators typically put a working fluid (such as helium) through one of...

Air Separation

Air separation is one of the largest, as well as earliest, industrial applications of cryogenics. In this process, cryogenic temperatures are used to separate air into its constituent gases: nitrogen (78.08%), oxygen (20.95%), argon (0.93%) and carbon dioxide (0.3%). Trace gases such as krypton, neon, xenon and helium total far...

Coefficient of Performance and Figure of Merit

The coefficient of performance (COP) is used to describe the effectiveness of refrigerators, including those operating at cryogenic temperatures. The COP is defined as the amount of heat removed at the cryogenic operating temperature of the refrigerator divided by the amount of work that must be applied to remove the...

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

Resistance to embrittlement at low temperatures

Could anyone advise me about resistance to embrittlement at low temperatures for the alloys in subject, i.e. does the CF10M perform like the CF8M in the same cryogenic service (-215F)? Amara Maafi Amara.Maafi@bg-group.com

Need help with temperature dependent model

I am a fourth-year student at New Zealand University. My name is Xu Ke. I have a project to generate a temperature dependent model for inductor, capacitor and diode by using PLECS. PLECS is software which acts as a toolbox for MATLAB. In my models, the temperature is very low,...

In what form is water available in LN2?

Does anybody know in what form water is available in LN2? There probably is a block of ice in the bottom of the tank. But as water comes in many shapes, I can imagine snow or crystals floating free in the LN2. When water is available in LN2, could small...

Separating gases using cryogenics

We are looking for some consulting engineers who understand how to separate gases using cryogenics. We have a new process which takes biomass and converts it to 5 gases and we need to separate these gases into their pure forms. Thanks for your help. Malcolm Draper Energy Research Group LLC...

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