ADVERTISEMENT

NASA Invests in Aerospace Technology Development

NASA has selected eight technology proposals for investment that have the potential to transform future aerospace missions, introduce new capabilities and significantly improve current approaches to building and operating aerospace systems. This year’s portfolio addresses a range of leading-edge concepts, including a method to produce “solar white” coatings for scattering...

IBM Looks to the Cloud for Quantum Computing

IBM scientists have built a quantum computer system that users can access through the cloud on any desktop or mobile device to run algorithms and experiments. It's called the IBM Quantum Experience and it's powered by quantum processors with five superconducting qubits. Signals are sent in and out of a...

Electrons Trapped in Liquid Helium Show Promise as Quantum Bits

A team of researchers from the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory (CSA CSM) and Yale University has developed a method to trap and manipulate electrons, opening the door for using the particles as quantum bits. Electrons represent an ideal quantum bit, according to the team, with a "spin" that...

NASA Releases Dozens of Patents into Public Domain

NASA has released 56 formerly patented agency technologies into the public domain, making its government developed technologies freely available for unrestricted commercial use. Additionally, a searchable database is also available that catalogs thousands of expired NASA patents already in the public domain.

Cryogenically Cooled Heat Pipes Used for Refrigeration

Scientists at Brunel University London, in collaboration with Air Products PLC, have engineered a new method to build freezers using advanced cryogenically cooled heat pipe technology. The units, capable of reaching temperatures as low as -180 °C, are likely to be used for medical storage, cooling and storing samples ranging...

Fermilab Breaks Ground on Short-Baseline Near Detector Building

Fermilab broke ground on April 27 on the building that will house the future Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND). The particle detector is one of three that scientists will use to search for the sterile neutrino, a hypothesized particle that scientists say could not only increase understanding for neutrinos already known,...

ADVERTISEMENT

Helium-3

Helium-3 (3He) is one of the two stable isotopes of helium. The other is the much more common Helium-4 (4He). Neither of these isotopes should be confused with He II, which is the second liquid phase of 4He. He II was discussed in this column in the Spring 2010 edition...

Cryopumping

Cryopumping refers to the use of cryogenic temperatures to produce vacuum in enclosed spaces. More broadly, it can also refer to the removal of gases via cryogenic temperatures from a flow stream or enclosure without necessarily resulting in vacuum pressures. This is an important application of cryogenics and is used...

Thermal Acoustic Oscillations

Thermal Acoustic Oscillations (TAO) are a common event in cryogenic systems that can have significant adverse effects on the performance of the system. TAOs are sustained pressure oscillations that can occur in tubes containing gas, closed at one end (the warm end) that have a very large temperature gradient along...

Food Processing

Cryogenics and Food The industrial gas industry provides a host of products and services related to food. The various gases have useful and sometimes fascinating applications in food industry. “The food industry is not a homogenous industry. The needs of customers processing hamburger vs. poultry vs. strawberries vs. seafood, for...

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...

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...