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CSA to help promote “Absolute Zero” TV special

CSA has signed on as part of a national partnership program, to help engage the American audience in a story that touches their lives in innumerable ways, a two-part PBS television special based on the Tom Shachtman book, "Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold."

First 600m of LHC cryogenic distribution line passes initial tests

The first 600m of the cryogenic distribution line to supply superfluid helium to the superconducting magnets at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN have passed initial testing at room and cryogenic temperatures.

BOC Gases plant commemorates 40th anniversary

BOC Gases commemorated the 40th anniversary of its Otis KS helium plant, one of the world's largest, which refines and produces more helium in one month than it did in its first year of operation.

NHMFL at FSU commissions world-record 900 MHz magnet

CSA corporate sustaining member The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University marked a major scientific leap forward with the commissioning of the world-record 900 MHz magnet in July.

ACD and Cryoquip contribute to air separation plant

Member companies ACD and Cryoquip of Cryogenic Industries, a CSA corporate sustaining member, contributed their expertise to building the world's largest single-unit air separation plant.

Collins Awardee

At the 2005 CEC/ICMC conference in Keystone CO, Dr. Glen McIntosh, President of Cryogenic Technical Services, Inc., a CSA Corporate Sustaining Member, and a columnist for Cold Facts magazine, received the CEC's prestigious Samuel Collins Award.

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

History of Cryogenics

From the Fall 1999 issue of Cold Facts magazine Millennium Breakthroughs A variety of CSA members give different perspectives on the past millennium: What were the most significant breakthroughs in cryogenics during the past millennium? Prof. R.G. Scurlock, Kryos Technology, scurlock@soton.ac.uk (“Breakthrough” = way through obstacles — Oxford English Dictionary)...

Cryobiology

Andreas Sputtek Past President Society for Cryobiology sputtek@uke.uni-hamburg.de or http://www.sputtek.de/. The word cryobiology (from the Greek words “cryo” = cold, “bios” = life, and “logos” = science) literally signifies the science of life at low temperatures. In practice, this field comprises the study of any biological material or system (e.g.,...

Cryogenic Insulation

James E. Fesmire Cryogenics Test Laboratory NASA Kennedy Space Center james.e.fesmire@nasa.gov Introduction In today’s world, the use of cryogenics and low-temperature refrigeration is taking a more and more significant role. From the food industry, transportation, energy, and medical applications to the Space Shuttle, cryogenic liquids must be stored, handled, and...

Cryogenic Treatment of Materials

F.J. Diekman Controlled Thermal Processing, Inc. info@metal-wear.com Cryogenic Processing (also called cryogenic treatment, and incorrectly “cryogenic tempering”) is a process that uses cryogenic temperatures to modify materials to enhance their performance. Cryogenic Processing involves the slow reduction in temperature of the material to at least -300°F (-185°C) and holding the...

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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