Metal components are often given very specific thermal treatment to enhance their operational properties. Cold and heat treatment influence hardness, tensile strength and dimensional stability, due to structural changes within the material. Although heating is an essential part of the process, cold treatment often gives the finishing touch. Cold can be generated in various ways. Liquid nitrogen supplied in bulk for example, is common.

Cold produced by vapour compression systems offers an alternative. However, requirements imposed are becoming increasingly stringent, not only with regard to the temperature range and accuracy required, but also to the ever increasing legislation on environmental standards.

The effective alternative
One thing that has not changed, is the user's demand for complete operating reliability of the equipment used. Reason to take a fresh look at an efficient approach to the generation of cold, and to consider technology, a company and its equipment that will enable you to re-engineer your cold treatment process, for an accurate cost-effective operation. For over 40 years, Stirling Cryogenics has been supplying highly reliable cold cabinets, without using environmentally harmful gases: no CFCs or HLHs are used. The combination of Stirling cryogenerator(s) with cold cabinets will give you accurate control of the temperature settings and the treatment curve you need for your specific application or material, from ambient conditions down to temperatures of -196°C.

At temperatures of -80°C and lower our cold cabinets achieve better efficiency  than vapour compression systems making Stirling an attractive alternative source of cold. A simple calculation proves the point: a single cylinder Stirling cold cabinet produces as much cold per hour (at -80°C) as 50 litres of liquid nitrogen. Assuming you need 6,000 hours of cold for your cold treatment process, a Stirling cryogenerator-cold cabinet combination will save you 300,000 litres of liquid nitrogen per year.