The Assembly of the LHC Short Straight Sections (SSS) at CERN: Project Status and Lessons Learned

The series production of the LHC SSS has started in the beginning of 2004 and is foreseen to last until end 2006. The production consists in the assembly of 474 cold masses housing superconducting quadrupoles and corrector magnets within their cryostats. 87 cold mass variants, resulting from various combinations of main quadrupole and corrector magnets, have to be assembled in 55 cryostat types, depending on the specific cryogenic and electrical powering schemes required by the collider topology. The assembly activity features the execution of more than 5 km of leak-tight welding of stainless steel and aluminium cryogenic lines, designed for 20-bar pressure, according to high qualification standards and undergoing severe QA inspections. Some 2500 leak detection tests, using He mass spectrometry, are required to check the tightness of the cryogenic circuits. Extensive electrical control work, to check the integrity of the magnet instrumentation and electrical circuits throughout the assembly of the SSS, is also carried out. This paper presents the current status of production, the assembly facilities at CERN, work organisation and Quality Assurance issues, and the acquired assembly experience after one and a half years of production.