Thread by @AndreasAtETH

Hey #quantum crowd!
Are you still here on @Twitter or have you left already?
In any case, here is another very good #CryoFails story for the #cryogenics and #quantum crowd out here.
As you may know, our VeriCold dilution refrigerator here is one of the very first ones ...
1/n

... way before pulse tube cooler systems were available commercially from @OxInst or @BlueFors_Ltd @Bluefors_Inc or anyone else for that matter.
#CryoFails
2/n

So when we go for the factory acceptance test, in a barn of a farm near Munich, the CEO of the company shows us our system, just after it has been warmed up. While the CEO, a postdoc of @qudev and I stand next to the opened cryostat ...
#CryoFails
3/n

... a software engineer of VeriCold squeezes by in between us and the cryostat to do some work on the gas handling system .... aaaaannnnd ....
#CryoFails
4/n

... gets stuck with one of the belt loops of his jeans in a cutout on the base plate of our nice and brand new pulse tube cooled dilution refrigerator twisting the insides of it and bending the base plate.
(This picture is before the accident happened.)
#CryoFails
5/n

I was surprised how calm the CEO of VeriCold remained, considering that one of their employees just ruined the system that was close to delivery to the customer in front of the customer and the CEO himself.
#CryoFails
6/n

In any case the system got delivered to our @qudev @ETH_physics lab eventually and performed well as the first one of its kind used to do experiments with superconducting qubits.
Now there is many systems available from @OxInst and @BlueFors_Ltd @Bluefors_Inc.
#CryoFails
7/n

Here is the animated version of the strip-down of our VeriCold dilution refrigerator that I intended to post as part of this tweet.
#CryoFails
1b/n