Bond and electron beam welding quality control of the aluminum stabilized and reinforced CMS conductor by means of ultrasonic phased-array technology

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is one of the general-purpose detectors to be provided for the LHC project at CERN. The design field of the CMS superconducting magnet is 4 T, the magnetic length is 12.5 m and the free bore is 6 m. The coils for CNIS are wound of aluminum-stabilized Rutherford type superconductors reinforced with high-strength aluminum alloy. For optimum performance of the conductor a void-free metallic bonding between the high-purity aluminum and the Rutherford type cable as well as between the electron beam welded reinforcement and the high-purity aluminum must be guaranteed. It is the main task of this development work to assess continuously the bond quality over the whole width and the total length of the conductors during manufacture. To achieve this goal we use the ultrasonic phased-array technology. The application of multi-element transducers allows an electronic scanning perpendicular to the direction of production. Such a testing is sufficiently fast in order to allow a continuous analysis of the complete bond. A highly sophisticated software allows the on-line monitoring of the bond and weld quality.