While 2020’s pandemic altered “business as usual” for nearly every organization, operation and individual around the globe, some businesses took advantage of the necessary changes to reflect on their operations and expectations. Late last year, Cryomech (CSA CSM) took the opportunity and restructured internally. Now, the new—and growing—team has introduced the PT425, an improved, more powerful version of their PT420 pulse tube cryocooler.

One of Cryomech’s largest leadership changes occurred in October when former president Kelly Wypych parted ways with the company just as the organization was moving into its new facility in New York. At that time, Rich Dausman took over as president of Cryomech. “When the pandemic hit and it was clear that changes would have to be made internally, everyone really stepped up into new leadership positions,” Dausman said in an interview with Cold Facts. “People really did an outstanding job with a building move and reorganization in the heart of a pandemic.”

Dausman began his career at Cryomech in 1976 and worked with founder and cryogenics legend William Gifford. Since then, he has continued to work his way through the company in various engineering and management positions leading up to his current role, in which he was heavily responsible for the restructuring. “Everyone on the team exceeded our expectations regarding the new organizational structure. Now, we’re in a more productive position than before the pandemic… save for the materials-sourcing problems that most of the world is facing. Don’t even get me started on the Suez…” At the time of the interview, the Ever Given was still blocking the Suez Canal, leading to even greater global procurement challenges.

Part of the restructure took into consideration the new, expanded facility. “We knew we were about to enter a real hiring phase with our expanded building. In these first six months, we’ve already brought in new equipment and incorporated a state-of-the-art warehouse management system,” Dausman said. “We went from 43,000 to 72,000 square feet on 14 acres with plenty of room for future expansions. Obviously, with this new room, we’re prepared for new teammates. We’re expecting to hire something like 20 new roles in this calendar year alone. So far, in 2021, we’ve already brought in about seven new individuals.”

Some of those new individuals have been hard at work on a new, more powerful pulse tube cryocooler based on the existing PT420—the PT425. The PT425—which provides 2.5 W of cooling at 4.2 K—has the same physical size as the PT420—which provides 2 W at the same temperature thanks to some clever internal engineering. It features the same CPA 1114 compressor and allows for swap-and-switch implementation. “With the rise in quantum computing, people have been clamoring for more access to dilution refrigerators. We now offer the same cooling power with fewer systems, thanks to the improved cooling power.”

“I’m extremely proud of the hard work and willingness to ‘go to bat’ for the rest of the company that each and every employee has shown over the past year. While we’re still only firing on about seven of our eight cylinders, we’ve got our production numbers trending up and beat our output from previous years,” Dausman continues. “This is a testament to what can happen when dedicated individuals pull together to get things done.” http://www.cryomech.com ■