Meyer completes NEWFIRM dewar for AURA and NOAO

AURA NEWFIRM Dewar

Cold Facts (Fall 2004, Vol 20, No4)

Meyer has just completed another Aluminum Cryogenic Dewar vessel for a world-class astro-physics program.

The NEWFIRM Dewar was built for the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO).  The NEWFIRM dewar is the outer vacuum shell of the NEWFIRM Instrument, a facility level infrared instrument to be installed at NOAO's 4-meter telescopes in Hawaii and Chile.

The dewar consists of five separate chambers with 41.38" inner diameters x ~58" overall height, two cylindrical weldments with multiple rectangular ports, one domed weldment, one conical weldment and one a precision machined 5" thick ring.  Constructed of 6061T6 aluminum the vessel assembly was helium mass spectrometer leak tested to

AURA NEWFIRM Dewar being constructed

Supply of this aluminum dewar case continues Meyer's long tradition of supplying vacuum tight aluminum weldments for basic science applications.  Meyer Vice President, Ed Bonnema, said "The word seems to be getting out in the astro-physics community regarding our abilities in aluminum welding.  AURA's project engineer told me that a deciding factor in choosing Meyer was a recommendation by one of the project reviewers, whom we had built an aluminum dewar for several years ago."

Other recent aluminum vacuum chambers include the HAWC Cryostat Dewar Case for the University of Chicago, the Diagnostic Instrument Manipulator Vessel for the National Ignition Facility and a Cryogenic Dewar Case for the University of Florida.

The higher the quality, the lower the "total cost of ownership".