Volume 5, Number 5     September/October 1997

Advanced Technologies

No Sweat for BeCool ^TM

TIRLING TECHNOLOGY COMPANY (STC) OF Washington, D.C., has carved out a niche in a broad cryogenic cooling market with its low-cost, high-efficiency cryogenic cooler, called BeCOOL™, in collaboration with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. By meeting the challenge of limiting constraints placed on all NASA hardware development contracts, STC was able to produce new techniques and processes that solved the problems of earlier coolers, including cost and mechanical, and applied them to broad commercial markets with increased demand in the computer manufacturing and high-temperature superconductor areas.

"Broad commercial markets are opening for long-life, maintenance-free and compact cryogenic coolers in the telecommunication, computer, and scientific equipment fields,'' said Barry Penswick, technical director in charge of new product development for STC. "There were a number of things that were expensive on earlier coolers such as the motor, and also the way it was put together. The new cryogenic cooler takes care of these problems. The flexural bearing, for example, provides a way to keep the moving components from rubbing against each other, which would normally cause wear and then failure. This feature eliminates that high cost of frequent repair.''

BeCOOL™ can operate over a broad range of cryogenic temperatures with cooling capacity up to 15 watts. Computer manufacturers have taken advantage of the cryogenic cooling capacity because semiconductor materials work better at lower temperatures. Also, interest in improving computer system performance and increased chip density is putting more demand on innovative ways to cool the central processing unit (CPU). Cooling the CPU to 80 degrees Kelvin can more than double the system's processing speed.

The high-temperature superconductor is a growing market for cryogenic cooling, benefiting products that are cooled with liquid nitrogen temperatures. This application increases performance in a shoe-size box instead of the previous filters the size of a four-drawer filing cabinet. In this case, traditional cryogenic coolers are often too large or place unwanted demands on the end user. Because BeCOOL™ has more than twice the efficiency of industrial coolers, the company can offer a much smaller product.

The BeCOOL™ cryogenic cooler is a compact, maintenance-free, low-cost alternative to previous commercial coolers.

Combined with its maintenance-free, long operating life and compact machine, STC coolers are an attractive alternative to traditional cryogenic coolers because they operate for more than 50,000 continuous hours. STC is currently manufacturing a line of free-piston Stirling cryogenic coolers for multiple commercial markets. Penswick said that companies across the nation have demonstrated a high level of interest in the cryogenic coolers.

For more information, contact Barry Penswick at Stirling Technology Company.
Call 509/735-4700 E-mail: bpenswick@stirlingtech.com

Please mention you read about it in Innovation.