Demonstration of an Autocascade Cryocooler for Rapid Cooldown of OASIS Towed Bodies

"The goal of the Phase I effort is to demonstrate Mainstream's innovative multi-stage autocascade refrigeration technology as a portable, temporary cooling system that could interface with an Organic Airborne and Surface Influence Sweep (OASIS) towed bodyto quickly cool the system and decrease the preparation time required to deploy it. Mainstream's autocascade refrigeration system incorporates several innovative technologies to provide high reliability and high efficiency in a shipboard and flightdeckenvironment. Previous demonstration experiments have shown that this technology has efficiencies as high as 20% of Carnot. The military application for this technology is of great importance to the Navy. There are also significant commercial applicationsfor this technology. The immediate market for these systems are medical and biological laboratories and test facilities where the 1997 sales are between 20 and 40 million dollars. The semi-conductor industry, which uses cryocoolers for condensingimpurities from gas streams used in wafer manufacture, is also very attractive."