Abstract :
The ESRF non-evaporable getter (NEG) coating facility is in operation since two years now. A large part of the insertion device straight sections of the electron storage ring has been equipped with in-house coated 5m long aluminum vacuum chambers with an inner vertical aperture of 8 mm. Operational experience with different coating parameters leading to different film thicknesses will be given and compared to bremsstrahlung data. The paper deals also with improvements of the coating production and chamber preparation, and describes some aspects of NEG coating data acquisition, visualization, and remote control. The R&D program leading to a more powerful DC solenoidal coating tool to further improve the NEG coating production throughput and quality aspects is also discussed.
