Ultra Low Temperature Engineering and Processes are a specialized field. Design expertise and competence is accumulated over time and experience rather than commercially available training or literature.

System designs are much more complicated than standard cooling systems with many components working outside the manufactures ‘application window’, with extreme temperatures, specialised gases and operating conditions. Hence the warranty liability in many cases falls on the ‘system designer’ rather than the ‘component manufacture’.

Therefore it is critical that systems are designed in detail from the outset. It is often necessary for designers to carry out independent tests and R&D to determine whether some components are suitable, and sometimes modify them to suit.

A system designed and manufactured to a high standard can be extremely reliable and reach hour run-times similar to many non-ULT refrigeration systems.

Poorly designed systems are plagued by compressor failures, motor burnouts, leaks, component failure and inefficiency. A new machine based on a copy of an old design (and made by non-experts) would be a likely candidate for these types of problems and the same goes for designs made by ´trial and error’, rather than detailed calculations.