US 12,292,163 B2
Method and device for precooling a cryostat
Marco Strobel, Karlsruhe (DE)
Filed by Bruker BioSpin GmbH & Co. KG, Ettlingen (DE)
Filed on Dec. 3, 2018, as Appl. No. 16/207,404.
Application 16/207,404 is a division of application No. 15/225,094, filed on Aug. 1, 2016, granted, now 10,203,068.
Claims priority of application No. 10 2015 215 919.1 (DE), filed on Aug. 20, 2015.
Prior Publication US 2019/0101244 A1, Apr. 4, 2019
Int. Cl. F17C 3/08 (2006.01); F17C 13/00 (2006.01); F25B 9/10 (2006.01); F25D 19/00 (2006.01); G01R 33/38 (2006.01); H01F 6/04 (2006.01); F25B 9/14 (2006.01)
CPC F17C 3/085 (2013.01) [F17C 3/08 (2013.01); F17C 13/007 (2013.01); F25B 9/10 (2013.01); F25D 19/006 (2013.01); G01R 33/3804 (2013.01); H01F 6/04 (2013.01); F25B 9/14 (2013.01); F25B 2400/17 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for operating a cryostat comprising a vacuum container that houses an object to be cooled, the vacuum container having a neck tube that connects the vacuum container to an area outside of the cryostat, the method comprising:
maintaining a temperature of the object to be cooled during an operating phase by locating a cold head of a two-stage cooler in the neck tube such that the cold head cools a cryogenic working medium that condenses and flows through a heat pipe to a thermal contact surface that is thermally conductively connected to the object to be cooled, the working medium absorbing heat from the thermal contact surface, evaporating and returning to the cold head via the heat pipe; and
prior to locating the two-stage cooler in the neck tube, cooling the vacuum chamber during a pre-cooling phase by inserting a short circuit block into the neck tube, the short circuit block fitting within the neck tube and the heat pipe and having a first end external to the heat pipe that is thermally connected to a cooling device and a second end in contact with the thermal contact surface, the short circuit block comprising a thermally conductive material core that facilitates cooling of the thermal contact surface by the cooling device.