X-Message-Number: 16742
From: 
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 11:56:12 EDT
Subject: cryostat questions

To answer a couple of questions about the new CI outsourced cryostat:

<< Are the new units a technical advance, or a make-do effort?>>

Neither. The new unit is essentially the same as our previous units--an 
interior shell of epoxy fiberglass and an outer shell of polyester 
fiberglass, with perlite in the annular space at a moderate vacuum (around 10 
microns of mercury). The out-source fabricator, doing this for the first 
time, wasn't careful enough in some of the work, and we had to bring it up to 
snuff, but our cost was not affected.

The patients who were moved into the new unit had been in temporary units of 
lower thermal efficiency. There was no risk to the patients or any 
temperature change. We now do not have any patients in temporary units, but 
we have the temporaries (plain styrofoam insulation) available if needed, and 
of course we can build just about any number of temporaries in a very short 
time if there should ever be a big spurt in patient numbers. 

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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