cryogenics and FE's

[Jack Zupan]

I do chemistry for a living and sometimes see the world as a bunch of molecules. I have seen some stuff on cryogenic treatment of various automobile parts. I just can't see that it would do anything. As I understand it you cool the parts down to near absolute zero and then let it come back to room temperature under carefully controlled conditions. Absolute zero is the temperature at which all molecular motion stops, this is 273 degrees below zero centigrade. The thing is I can't see how anything can change under these conditions since you are slowing molecular motion to almost nothing. It seems to me that you would have to go in the opposite direction, that is heat up the parts until the molecules can move enough to arrange in the most stable configuration. This is annealing and is used to stress relieve steel and glass. At room temperature steel is so far below it's melting point that nothing much happens to the structure so why would going even colder have an effect.

I have been wrong plenty of times before so I guess it's not impossible the process works but it sure is counterintuitive. The positive responses I have seen have all been testimonial and not really measured differences though I confess I haven't chased down a lot of information on this subject. Nevertheless one should never underestimate the power of a placebo effect.

Jack Z.