Apd Cryogenics, Inc.

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Sumitomo (shi) Cryogenics of America, Inc.

Shi-apd Cryogenics, Inc.

Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Sumitomo (shi) Cryogenic of America, Inc.

Intermagnetics General Corporation

Other

Igc-apd Cryogenics

Shi-apd Cryogencis, Inc.

Sumitomo Cryogenics of America, Inc.

Longsworth, Ralph C.

Steyert, William A.

Ralph C Longsworth

Mingyao Xu

William A Steyert

Stephen Dunn

Jin Lin Gao

Ajay N Khatri

Boris V Yudin

Dennis H Hill

Eric Robert Seitz

John Borchers

R Bruce Sloan

Michael Boiarski

F Scott Murray

Tian Lei

Leo Blecher

Mikhail Boiarski

Philip A Jonas

Mikhail J Boiarsky

Francis T Lotz

Anthony L Owoc

Lawrence A Klusmier

Matthew G Chalmers

Santhosh Kumar Gandla

Glenn E Bonney

Losses in the connecting line between the Pressure Wave Generator and the cold head of a GM type pulse tube refrigerator, are reduced while maintaining or improving upon the desirable features of a standard corrugated hose connecting line including vibration isolation, separation distance, and mounting convenience. The basic means are to reduce the internal void volume of the convolutions in a corrugated hose in combination with reducing the number of corrugations, adding fillers to the void volumes, and vibration absorbing coatings.

Split pulse tube connecting line

A pneumatically driven cryogenic refrigerator operating primarily on the Gifford-McMahon (GM) cycle is switched from cooling to heating by a switch valve between a rotary valve and a drive piston that causes the displacer to reciprocate. The rotary valve has ports at two radii, one that cycles flow to the displacer and a second that cycles flow to the drive piston. Two ports cycle flow to the top of the drive piston, the 'cooling' port optimizes the cooling cycle and the 'heating' port provides a good heating cycle. A switch valve that changes the flow from one port to the other can be linearly or rotary actuated. The rotary valve does not reverse direction.

Reversible pneumatic drive expander

A heat station for a GM or Stirling cycle expander provides a versatile, efficient, and cost effective means of transferring heat from a remote load at cryogenic temperatures that is cooled by a circulating cryogen to the gas in a GM or Stirling cycle expander as the gas flows between a regenerator and a displaced volume. The heat exchanger includes a shell that has external and internal fins that are thermally connected, are aligned parallel to the axis of the shell, and are enclosed in a housing having a single port on the bottom of the housing.

Heat station for cooling a circulating cryogen

A Gifford-McMahon (GM) type double-inlet pulse tube system providing cooling at cryogenic temperatures is provided. The system has a co-axial double-inlet valve that includes a base having an adjustable port, a fixed needle partially engaged in one end of the adjustable port, an adjustable needle partially engaged in another end of said adjustable port, and a body for housing the base, the fixed needle and the adjustable needle. The base is configured to be adjustable along an axial direction. The adjustable needle is arranged co-axially with the fixed needle. The adjustable port and the adjustable needle are configured to control an alternating current (AC) flow and a direct current (DC) flow between the stem port and the end port and to produce the DC flow in either direction between the stem port and the end port.

Co-axtal, double-inlet valve for pulse tube cryocooler

This invention relates generally to oil lubricated helium compressor units for use in cryogenic refrigeration systems, operating on the Gifford McMahon (GM) cycle. This invention provides redundancy between water cooling and air cooling if there is a blockage in the water or air supply by having air and water cooled after-coolers in series or parallel.

Helium compressor with dual after-coolers

A hybrid expander for producing refrigeration at a cryogenic temperature includes a Brayton expander producing refrigeration at a first temperature; a GM expander producing refrigeration at a second temperature, the first temperature being colder than the second temperature, the second temperature being 200K or less. A high pressure line receives a gas from a compressor at a first pressure and supplies it at the first pressure to the Brayton expander and the GM expander simultaneously. A low pressure line returns the gas to the compressor at a second pressure from the Brayton expander and the GM expander, the first pressure being greater than the second pressure. The Brayton expander piston is attached to the cold end of the GM expander displacer and the Brayton expander piston and the GM expander displacer reciprocating together.

Hybrid Gifford-McMahon-Brayton expander

This invention relates to oil lubricated helium compressor units for use in cryogenic refrigeration systems, operating on the Gifford McMahon (GM) or Brayton cycle. The objective of this invention is to provide redundancy by having a water cooled compressor manifolded to an air cooled compressor and sensors to detect faults so that an expander can be kept running if there is a failure in either the water or air supply.

Dual helium compressors

An expansion engine operating on a Brayton cycle which is part of a system for producing refrigeration at cryogenic temperatures that includes a compressor, a counter-flow heat exchanger, and a load that may be remote, which is cooled by gas circulating from the engine. The engine has a piston in a cylinder which has nearly the same pressure above and below the piston while it is moving. A valve connecting the warm end of the cylinder to a buffer tank allows a partial expansion and recompression of gas in the cold displaced volume that increases the refrigeration produced in each cycle with the same compressor flow rate.

Gas balanced engine with buffer

A hybrid expander combines a Brayton engine first stage with one or more GM colder stages that uses the flow from the Brayton engine to provide refrigeration at one or more remote heat stations.

Hybrid Brayton&#x2014;Gifford-McMahon expander

A heat station for a GM or Stirling cycle expander provides heat transfer from a remote load at cryogenic temperatures that is cooled by a circulating cryogen to the gas in a GM or Stirling cycle expander as the cryogen between a regenerator and a displaced volume. The heat exchanger includes a shell that has external and internal fins thermally connected to the shell that are aligned parallel to the axis of the shell and enclosed in a housing having an inlet port and an outlet port on the bottom of the housing.

A cryogenic refrigerator system with heaters is constructed in modular form to serve as a portable servicing system to warm up and then cool down a target object by circulating a gaseous cryogen through a target object cryostat without moving the target object or breaking its vacuum. The main module is a refrigerator cryostat containing a fan that circulates gas through one or more heat exchangers which can warm or cool the gas by heaters and by one or more GM or Brayton cycle expanders. Additional components including one or more compressors, a gas charge and vent assembly, a control system, gas lines, power lines, and vacuum jacketed transfer lines can be assembled in the main module or additional modules. An example is a system that can be wheeled through a hospital to service a MRI cryostat.

System for warming-up and cooling-down a superconducting magnet

To provide refrigeration below 200 K, a Brayton cycle engine contains a light reciprocating piston. The refrigerator includes a compressor, a gas-balanced reciprocating engine having a cold rotary valve, a counterflow heat exchanger, a gas storage volume with valves that can adjust system pressures, a variable speed engine and a control system that controls gas pressure, engine speed, and the speed of the piston. The engine is connected to a load such as a cryopanel, for pumping water vapor, through insulated transfer lines.

Brayton cycle engine with high displacement rate and low vibration

A cryogenic expander maximizes the energy absorbing capacity of bumpers that prevent the displacer or piston in a pneumatically driven expander from hitting the cold or warm end of a cylinder. A collar at the warm end of the piston which has the same outside diameter as the piston and a lip at the warm end that engages an 'O' ring before the piston hits the cold end or bottom of the cylinder. The warm end of the collar also engages an 'O' ring before the pistons hits the warm end or top of the cylinder. Having &#x201c;O&#x201d; rings that are near the maximum diameter of the cylinder maximizes the amount of energy they can absorb, and thus permits quiet operation of larger size expanders than prior designs.

Cryogenic expander with collar bumper for reduced noise and vibration characteristics

A means and a method to cool down an MRI magnet, in a cryostat that is designed for a maximum pressure of about 0.2 MPa, are described which use cold helium output from a Brayton cycle refrigerator at a pressure of about 0.8 MPa to exchange heat with helium in the MRI cryostat in a coupling heat exchanger that is located removeably in or proximate the neck tube of the MRI cryostat. A circulator drives helium from the MRI cryostat through the coupling heat exchanger.

Growing community of inventors

Allentown, PA, United States of America

Ralph C Longsworth