Performance of shielded timing RPCs in a 12C fragmentation experiment

We show the feasibility of large area timing RPC detectors for experiments dealing with fragmentation-like primary interactions and/or high detector multiplicities, without significative degradation of the detector capabilities. The tested prototype is constituted by three independent cells placed into grounded aluminium boxes, which reduce the cross-talk to the level of 0.4%. Each 2 × 2 × 60 cm 3 box consists of a 4-gap glass–aluminium RPC. Hz / cm 2 the counters have shown a time resolution of 60 ps < σ t < 80 ps with 3 σ -tails below 8%. High mechanical robustness and homogeneity of the physical properties along the longitudinal direction of the detector were also observed.