ATC solves process cooling problem for Loughborough University - Dec 2010
The Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) at Loughborough University is world famous for its Photovoltaic research. Expansion of its activities resulted in it being re-housed in a purpose built Laboratory complete with house water cooling facilities. At first sight the house water supply was ideal for supplying cooling for the several magnetron sputtering systems used at CREST for thin film deposition.
Unfortunately, this "house water" contained additives for algae and corrosion inhibition and as a result it was electrically conducting. This caused severe problems when the cooling was applied to parts held at high Voltage such as magnetron targets.
Applied Thermal Control provided a neat and cost effective solution to this problem. The K12 Mini-Loop Heat exchanger uses the house water to cool one side of the heat exchanger while the second side with de-ionised water (or a coolant of choice) is used to cool the application.
The application loop is temperature controlled to better than +/- 10C . The unit is whisper quiet and designed to be compact. Although the unit provides 12kW of cooling power, the footprint is only 540mm x 550mm.
The alternative to installing the K12 at CREST was to install a very large and noisy chiller at several times the cost.