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The Birth of CSA

The Cryogenic Society of America was founded in 1964. David Carse, the first national President of CSA, traced the “history” of the newly formed body in his article “Cryo Comment,” published in Volume 1, No. 1 of the society’s journal, Cryogenic Technology.

Report on World Congress of the ISC

The 17th World Congress of the International Society of Cryosurgery was held in Bali, Indonesia, last December. At the opening ceremony, Prof. Dr. Akmal Taher, Sp.U(K), Director General of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, welcomed the delegates. A total of 109 delegates from four continents attended...

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...

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Joule-Thomson Effect

The Joule-Thomson (JT) effect is a thermodynamic process that occurs when a fluid expands from high pressure to low pressure at constant enthalpy (an isenthalpic process). Such a process can be approximated in the real world by expanding a fluid from high pressure to low pressure across a valve. Under...

Current Leads

One of the challenges of using superconducting magnets is the connection of the magnet to a room temperature power supply. This is accomplished via current leads. The trick is that current leads should ideally have a low heat leak, since they connect room temperature to cryogenic temperature, while at the...

Multilayer Insulation

Multilayer insulation (also referred to as superinsulation) is a key component in the reduction of heat leak to cryogenic systems due to thermal radiation. MLI consists of a series of uncooled reflective surfaces placed in the vacuum space between two surfaces, one warmer than the other. Generally speaking, for ideal...

Magnetic Levitation

From http://www.superconductors.org. Magnetic-levitation is an application where superconductors perform extremely well. Transport vehicles such as trains can be made to “float” on strong superconducting magnets, virtually eliminating friction between the train and its tracks. Not only would conventional electromagnets waste much of the electrical energy as heat, they would have...

Superconductivity

From Superpower website. History of Superconductivity Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 by the Dutch physicist, Heike Kammerlingh Onnes when he was able to liquefy helium by cooling it to 4 Kelvin, or -452°F. This enabled him to cool other materials close to absolute zero and investigate their electrical properties. He...

Medical Applications of Cryogenics

Neutron Therapy Cryogenics is at the heart of nuclear accelerators. Accelerators such as Fermilab’s Tevatron make neutron therapy for cancer possible. From Fermilab Today 4/20/09: Fermilab currently offers neutron therapy. But staff at Fermilab designed and built the proton accelerator used by the nation’s first hospital-based treatment center to use...

Nuclear Physics

Al Zeller National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab (NSCL) at Michigan State University zeller@nscl.msu.edu Cryogenics has a long history in nuclear physics. The technology has its origins in the use of cold traps for maintaining a vacuum, which is required to prevent beam loss and for generating high voltages used in acceleration....

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...