With Spider still on ice in west Antarctica, construction is well underway on the new cryostat (named Llorothaag aka Lloro aka Thaggie). Last week, Ziggy, Jeff, and I took a trip to Meyer Tool (outside Chicago) to check on things and discuss some details.
From the inside out, the cryostat consists of:
- A main tank, holding about 1300 liters of liquid helium
- A smaller tank for superfluid helium goes beside the main tank
- Two vapour-cooled shields (VCS1 and VCS2), cooled by the still-cold gas that boils out of the main tank . Their cylindrical sides are fixed, while removable closeout plates on the top and bottom circular faces allow the cryostat to be opened.
- A vacuum vessel, which holds all these parts at vacuum like a giant thermos. This consists of a main body and dome pieces for the top and bottom.
First look at the shop floor
Collection of pieces
Main tank with loosely fit VCS1 pieces
Ed, Jeff, and Ziggy for scale
Ken discusses the main tank top
Plumbing fixtures and clamped VCS1
More plumbing
The caps will be cut off for welding in the rest of the plumbing
Main tank top detail
More main tank, VCS1, and FLexures
Closeup of main tank flexure
Six of these support the main tank inside the vacuum vessel
Smaller flexure for supporting vapour cooled shield
Flexure pull test setup
And a VCS part pulled to 154 pounds
Vacuum vessel body
With many ports for attaching electronics, etc
Vacuum vessel inside
With support points for main tank and VCS2
Top dome pieces
The top dome's dome
Bottom dome
Domes
Top dome plate
Plate detail
Welds
Top dome struts
More top dome struts
The "doughnut ring"
For bottom of vacuum vessel. Holes for cryogenic fill/vent ports
Doughnut ring being cleaned
Not Spider. Polished parts to reduce thermal emissivity
Vacuum fitting
"Lightweighted" with "bonus" holes
VCS closeout pieces
VCS2 bottom annulus and closeouts
VCS2 bottom
More VCS2 bottom
With holes for plumbing
VCS2 cable feedthrough detail
VCS2 bottom middle
Assembled with nuts and bolts
VCS1 bottom annulus and closeout
VCS1 detail
VCS1 cable feedthroughs
Assembling the top closeouts
Superfluid tank
How to make a Spider cryostat
In six easy steps
Test plates
From initial tests of the vacuum vessel
Multi-layer insulation
Radiatively isolates the cryostat stages
MLI roller and table
Many cuts
Cryosculpture in conference room
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