GRE were contracted to design and manufacture two custom cryostats for CCFE (Culham Centre for Fusion Energy – part of the UK Atomic Energy Authority). Each cryostat comprised a cooled, vacuum insulated, cryostat vessel with gas cooling heat exchanger and temperature control via a microprocessor and touch screen HMI. The system also required the ability to communicate with the client’s third-party control system.
System details
Each cryostat system used a Sumitomo CH110 cryocooler cold head (mounted directly onto the vacuum vessel), along with matching water-cooled compressors. The cold head then cooled the surface of a GRE-designed heat exchanger, by conduction and the use of electric heaters to ‘trim’ the temperature. Cooling for the gas stream was effected by coil wrapped around, and vacuum-brazed, to the heat exchanger.
System performance
Cooling power : 22oW @ 115K
GRE’s full scope of works for this ‘turnkey’ project comprised the following:
- 2 x Sumitomo CH 110 cryocoolers, plus the matching water cooled compressor, helium charge and transfer lines.
- 2 x Cryostat Vessels
- 2 x Internal (to cryostats) active heat exchanger system with (copper) thermal shield, between the primary gas stream cooling circuit and the CH 110 cryocooler cold head.
- All electronics, controls, software and communications link to external monitoring software.
System concept, design, analysis, manufacture and testing undertaken by GRE; Sumitomo cryocooler supplied by gasandliquidcontrols.com, all bespoke machined components, including heat exchanger, flanges and fittings, supplied by ashbrook-engineering.co.uk
