These are the gas components for a setup to test the liquefaction rate of pressurised argon gas when cooled by liquid argon at atmospheric pressure in an open tube heat exchanger. The gas components sit on top of an open Dewar flask, the heat exchanger will be immersed in the liquid below. Not bad for a one-day job with components I found in the lab and a little bit of DIY work, no?

The goal of the test is to determine the optimal geometry and the required exchange surface for the heat exchanger in the DS-20k cryostat. This heat exchanger will be necessary to boil off argon gas on the return site at a high rate for gas purification, and to liquefy the purified gas on the supply site.