Cascade Refrigeration Systems

Abbess is up to the task of designing and manufacture of low temperature refrigeration units to fit a wide range of needs in science and industry.

Cascade Refrigeration System

Our cascade refrigeration systems are the most powerful closed loop cooling systems that Abbess currently offers. These systems eliminate the high running cost of liquid nitrogen systems and offer precise control across a wide range of temperatures from 150C to -96C. The thermal load can be a thermal plate, finned heat exchanger or a recirculating thermal fluid.

Our refrigeration systems can be used for:

• Environmental test chambers (with temperature and humidity control)
• Ultra low temperature freezers
• Lyophilizers (freeze dryers)
• Lasers, NMRs, Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometers and other devices
• Cryogenic storage
• Bio storage (bio refrigeration)
• DNA storage (sample preservation)
• Forensic samples
• Genetic sample storage (animal, plant, archaeological)
• Cold Traps

The Abbess Instruments Cascade Refrigeration System consists of two refrigeration compressors working together to cool an evaporator to temperatures as low as -96C. The cascade refrigeration system uses R-404 refrigerant in one of the compressor loops to cool an inter-stage heat exchanger that is used to condense an ultra-low temperature refrigerant (R-508B). The ultra-low temperature refrigerant is circulated by the second low stage compressor and vaporized in an evaporator to cool the given heat load. These evaporators can be customer supplied or custom built by Abbess to meet your specific needs. Our most common application is to use a heat exchanger at the evaporator to cool a sealed bath of heat exchange fluid which can then be easily piped to the application’s heat load such as:

• Thermal plates
• Thermal shrouds
• Cold fingers
• Cold traps
• Storage coolers
• Storage cabinets

Our smallest refrigeration system is capable of -96C.

These refrigerators can be used in conjunction with our vacuum systems to provide space simulation profiles or they can be custom made to provide cooling for a variety of other applications such as medical storage and freeze drying. These systems are entirely customizable and can be sized to cool your product, environment or working fluid at various rates. Our refrigeration systems have been proven to be reliable and low maintenance in NASA simulation systems for years and have earned a reputation for quality, performance and control that is simply unmatched. Abbess also provides support both on-site and off-site for all of our refrigeration systems.

The Abbess Cascade Refrigeration System is capable of:

• 980 Watts of useful cooling from 100 to -25C.
• 1550 Watts of useful cooling at from -25 to -96C
• These cooling capacities are useful cooling averages consistent with a system working in a room at 20C.

“Useful cooling” refers to the power needed to change the temperature of a given mass of metal with known heat capacity at an observed rate. The Abbess Instruments Cascade Refrigeration System is capable of cooling a 36 pound(16.3 Kg) aluminum plate from 100C to -96C in about 3 hours in a vacuum. The system is also capable of accepting additional heat input to safely hold selected set points anywhere within 150C to -96C for extended periods of time. A system of this type involves directly vaporizing refrigerant in an evaporator that is embedded directly within a thermal plate. Faster, more uniform cooling can be accomplished via a chiller system.

Our refrigeration and chiller systems come in a variety of sizes and configurations to fit your application.

Refrigeration and vacuum systems can also be custom configured at sizes ranging from 1 horsepower to 34 horsepower systems and can be designed to operate at low(-40C) and ulta-low(-96C) temperatures. These refrigerators can be used in conjunction with our vacuum systems to provide space simulation profiles or they can be custom made to provide cooling for a variety of other applications such as medical storage and freeze drying. These systems are entirely customizable and can be sized to cool your product, environment or working fluid to specific temperatures at various rates. Abbess refrigeration and chiller systems can be configured with air or fluid heat rejection with redundant heat rejection options available.

Flexible Control and Diagnostic Capabilities

Abbess offers a variety of control and diagnostic packages that can fit your specific application and budget. These control systems could be as basic as a simple thermostatic control or as advanced as a data logging touch screen PC interface capable of integrated system diagnostics. Stand-alone PID Temperature controllers can also be utilized for simple, precise thermal control and profiling. Our refrigeration systems have been proven to be reliable and low maintenance in NASA simulation systems for years and have earned a reputation for quality, performance and control that is simply unmatched.