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Argonne Upgrades Enable Next-Generation Experiments

Building 203 looks unassuming, but behind—and beneath—its brick exterior, researchers are performing advanced experiments and developing support systems to answer some of physics’ biggest questions. In January, Cold Facts toured the physics building at Argonne National Laboratory (CSA CSM) in Lemont IL to learn more about the ongoing upgrades from...

Clean Energy Future: The Future is Getting Colder

From the developments in cryogenic applications over the last 20 years, we can see that the world in its technological workings is getting colder. But really, the world has been getting colder for the last 150 years as advancements in mastering cold have made steady progress. Liquid air for energy...

Introducing Cool Fuel: Fueling Cryogenics for the 21st Century!

There’s no shortage of cool project areas in cryogenics these days: space, quantum computing, fusion energy, clean energy and clean transport, to name a few. These are the fields that aspiring new engineers want to work in when they pass through my office. The irony is that our cool field...

Cryogenic Industrial Gas to Play Major Role in Alternative Clean Energy

While industrial gases and cryogenics have touched nearly every sector and industrial market for decades, the global push towards alternative clean energy technology is pushing cryogenics more rapidly than ever before. As part of this push, Circor (CSA CSM) is setting new standards for a hydrogen energy world. New technologies...

Saving Breaths: The Literal Air Power

When any of Cannon Air Force Base’s aircraft leave the base located just outside Clovis NM, members of the 27th Special Operations Logistics Readiness Squadron (SOLRS) cryogenics team make sure that, should anything go wrong, the pilots and crew can breathe easy… literally. The cryogenics team provides the liquid oxygen...

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Transfer Lines

Transfer lines may in some real sense be thought of as the cryogenic fluid analogy of current leads. While current leads carry electrical power to where it’s required in a cryogenic system, transfer lines do the same with cryogenic fluids. Transfer lines range in complexity from very simple U-tubes containing...

Zero Boiloff

Zero Boil Off cryostats are those that contain liquid cryogens but are designed to eliminate or vastly reduce the boil off of  the liquid. These cryostats combine some of the advantages of Cryogen-Free systems (e.g. ease of use and long operational lifetime) with the advantages associated with a reservoir of liquid...

Cryomodule

Cryomodule is a term that is most commonly used to refer to cryostats that contain superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities. Such cavities are used to accelerate charged particle beams and are a major component of modern particle accelerators. Using the term cryomodule to refer to cryostats containing SRF cavities appears...

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...

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...