Objective: A cooling assembly was required to be placed inside the source of Glow Discharge High resolution mass spectrometer. The assembly must effectively cool the source cell to sub cryo levels in least time possible.

1. The source cell to be cooled was at 8000 Volts potential
2. The assembly used liquid nitrogen with the cylinder placed outside the instrument and at ground potential.
3. The material used for optimal heat transfer while providing electrical insulation was very brittle as it was made from compressing powder
4. For maximum heat transfer it was required to ensure that the heat transfer material has maximum surface area for contact overcoming any mechanical mis-alignment. Since the assembly was to work under ultra vacuum even a micron of distance between heat transfer plate and the cell may mean no heat transfer at all.
5. The assembly was also supposed to ensure that the design provides enough clearances in three dimensions inside the source from all 8kV parts.

Solution:Since I did not know any mechanical CAD tools that time, I used "Corel Draw" to draw 2D drawings of the assembly. used a special four point spring loaded technique to ensure that the extra stress on the cooling plates is transferred to correct any mechanical mis-alignments. This resulted in rapid cooling of the source cell.

Achievement: Due to the cooling system, that instrument is the only instrument in the world that can analyze Gallium in its raw form.