Intermagnetics General Corporation

Philip A Jonas

F Scott Murray

Leo Blecher

Ralph C Longsworth

Ronald E Hintz

Michael Boiarski

W Denis Markiewicz

Michael Frantsov

Gary Ciancetta

A superconducting magnet is accessible for ramping within a cryostat by inserting flexible current leads through openings in the cryostat and pushing and twisting these leads inward until connections are made with electrical contacts provided on the superconducting magnet. For each current lead, a permanently installed channel guides the lead as it is pushed through the external opening and extends to make contact with the magnet terminal. The guide channel extends outside of the cryostat and includes an internal or external bend, whereby the overhead space required for the cryostat/magnet assembly may be reduced. After ramping, the leads are withdrawn.

Method and apparatus for connecting high current ramping leads to a

A MRI cryostat, which contains a superconducting magnet operating in a bath of liquid helium, reduces the boil-off rate of helium by intercepting most of the heat in-leakage by means of a throttle cycle (TC) refrigerator operating at a low side temperature of about 90K. The main heat exchanger for the throttle cycle refrigerator is located within or immediately adjacent to the cryostat housing and delivers cold liquid to a cold heat exchanger that is in thermal contact with an outer radiation shield, support struts, neck tube and electrical leads inside the cryostat. Heat is intercepted by the outer shield from essentially all paths between a 300K ambient and a 4K load temperature, which temperature results from liquid helium boil-off to atmosphere. A second, inner radiation shield at 35K is cooled by gaseous helium that boils from the liquid helium bath. There are no moving parts of the refrigeration system in the cryostat. Thus, vibration, noise and disturbance of the magnetic field are reduced. The refrigerator installation is small and low in cost; power consumption is reduced relative to the prior art.

MRI cryostat cooled by open and closed cycle refrigeration systems

A superconducting magnetic element is provided wherein the terminals are bonded to the coil body and are independent of that coil body supporting structure. The technology employs a terminal structure with a supporting base member surrounding a conductor terminal end portion positioned on a surface of an impregnated coil body and integrally bonded thereto. The terminal structure in turn permits freedom in manufacturing to employ all useful strategies in accommodating physical properties of different materials.

Superconducting magnetic coil element having terminals bonded to the

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Albany, NY, United States of America

Philip A Jonas