Precision Fleet Brakes

Yes, our brakes are the best. It took 25+ years of combined experience to develop the superior product we have today. Yet, it is our unique cryogenic method that is the source of our product’s excellence. The following sections provide some details to the major features of our process.

Our vacuum insulation offers the ultimate insulation for cryogenic processing equipment. It is quite literally 1000 times more efficient than any other form of insulation.

Heat Exchanger Technology Another feature of our system is our process of cooling the chamber without thermally shocking the payload. Our machines use heat exchangers to cool the inside of the chamber by gas kinetics. Nitrogen enters the heat exchanger and a fan circulates air over it. The cooled air is ducted to the bottom of the machine and then drawn back up through the payload. This gently reduces the temperature within the chamber and at the same time provides air circulation within the round chamber so the temperature remains even.

Some of our competitors' machines inject or spray liquid nitrogen into the chamber and others introduce it via a false floor. Arbitrarily spraying nitrogen into a chamber and hoping it evaporates before it hits a warm part is too unpredictable for our standards. The results can be disastrous. A small change in nitrogen pressure or a clogged or worn nozzle is all it takes to have nitrogen spray directly on an expensive payload, thermally shocking the part.

An additional method that our competitors use is a mechanical refrigeration system. It draws the temperature down to some extent before they begin injecting the liquid nitrogen. Beside the fact that this method has been proven notoriously unreliable, these units are known to fail within a few months of usage.

When it comes to maintaining sub-zero temperatures, our cryoprocessors consistently outperform the competition. This is because our chambers are cylindrical. This shape is highly efficient and reduces the heat flow areas to a minimum, assuring minimum nitrogen consumption. There are fewer corners where heat flux will be higher due to greater surface area on the outside. This minimizes the amount of conductive heat paths within the chamber, as the inside of the chamber hangs within the outside. This also eliminates the tendency of square machines to buckle as they try to accommodate the difference in thermal contraction between the inside and the outside of the machine. One of our competitor's machines buckles so much that the doors crack open and the machine never really gets down all the way to -300ºF, nor can it get up to its rated +300ºF tempering temperature.

Applied Cryogenics machines are designed with heating elements so that the load can be tempered within the machine up to +300ºF. Due to the extraordinary efficiency of the vacuum insulation, these heating elements are often necessary to allow the temperature of the payload to be brought up to room temperature within a reasonable time.