Making things work better via cryogenics

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Although he doesn't have that much in common with Batman's Mr. Freeze, Gary Crabtree also would like the world to "chill out."

At times his Kansas City-based company, Techspec, probably is the c-c-coldest spot around. Using cryogenics, Techspec deep-freezes all kinds of items to improve their performance. After a treatment, golf balls sail farther, race-car engines drive longer and brass instruments sound a little sweeter.

Cryogenics is a space-age technique that freezes items to extremely low temperatures, changing their molecular structure, said Crabtree, a metallurgist.

Or, as Crabtree's advertisements say: "If you can ride it, run it, sharpen it or wear it out," his company can improve it. He has even treated wafers of metal, smaller than a period at the end of this sentence, that were used in the space shuttle.

"We have had people tell us that they've actually frozen top designer clothes... and that those clothes stayed cleaner longer and don't wrinkle as easy," Crabtree said.

Even everyday items such as pantyhose and flags last longer after treatment, Crabtree said.

Although the results of cryogenics sound amazing on paper, musician George Robinson could literally hear the difference after his trumpet was frozen a month ago. "I first heard about the process when I was at a jam session," he said. Crabtree told him it would improve the sound of his horn. "It did."

After his horn was treated cryogenically, Robinson said it played brighter, fuller and rounder and improved the action on its valves. "But I didn't want to tell anyone at first," he said. "I wanted everybody to think it was just me."

Although the public is familiar with Hollywood's version of cryogenics, freezing humans has not yet advanced to where they can be brought back to life. Embryos, however, are being successfully frozen.

For metal or plastic materials, cryogenics can make them stronger and more wear-resistant, Crabtree said.

Crabtree took an early retirement after working 31 years for the Department of Energy at Allied Signal so he could open his own business. Techspec is Kansas City's first on-site cryogenics company, opening in 1993.

"I had to start my company because I felt like I had a mission to make materials more useful in the everyday world," Crabtree said. "We can make them better, so why don't we? And, you know, it feels really good to tell a business that you can save them a lot of money, then prove it."

Take, for example, the folks at Atchison Casting of Atchison, Kan. They were skeptical at first, Crabtree said. That company uses metallic rotors to bite into steel. After just seven cuts, the teeth of the rotors become dull and chipped, requiring the rotors to be removed, resharpened or replaced. After deep-freezing, the rotors last 21 cuts and the rotor teeth stay perfect, said Tom Wilson, quality control supervisor for Atchison Casting. "It's a $5 investment for big labor-saving costs."

Atchison Casting has saved almost $25,000 this year, just by freezing the fist-sized rotors.

The first step in freezing an item is to place it inside of the cryo-processor, a coffin-sized freezer. Connected to it is a 6-foot- tall silver tank, filled with 800 pounds of liquid nitrogen. The cryo-processor is large enough to accommodate two car engines or several smaller items. Often the process is done with batches of items.

First everything is chilled mechanically to minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. (By contrast, a home refrigerator chills food to about minus 34 degrees.) Next the liquid nitrogen mists the items in a dry, white fog, chilling them one degree at a time. Every step is controlled by a computer that reads out the numbers in red digital numbers.

The temperature drops one degree per minute. With each degree, the metal contracts. Microscopic bumps and ridges disappear. Metallic strength increases. Any stresses that were in the metal are now in the process of becoming uniform and equal.

After 8 1/2 hours the temperature reaches minus 312 degrees. The items are kept at this temperature for a minimum of 20 hours, then thawed out at the same controlled rate back to room temperature.

The entire process, a one-time procedure, takes a little more than two days. Prices vary: Scissors, $2.50; golf clubs, $12.50 each; baseball bat, $25; trumpet, $79.50.

"The industry is working on a standardization so that we can keep unscrupulous folks from using smoke and mirrors," Crabtree said. "We've heard of one case in the industry where a guy was using dry ice to give the illusion that he was freezing an engine. That kind of stuff makes me angry."

Although cryogenics of metals became standardized in the 1960s, using extremely cold temperatures to strengthen metals is not a new concept, said Mark Gonrowski, vice president of Diversified Cryogenics in Minneapolis.

"The Vikings were the first to discover that if they buried their swords in the cold ground in the winter, when they dug them up in the spring they would be stronger and file down sharper," Gonrowski said. "Swiss watch makers would also do the same thing with precision watch parts, by taking them high into the mountains and letting them be cold.... The Russians took this one step further during the space race, when they discovered that if they dipped metal parts in nitrogen the parts sometimes would last longer."

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