Aluminum alloy production for the reinforcement of the CMS conductor

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is one of the general-purpose detectors to be provided for the Large Hadron Collider (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. To reinforce the high-purity (99.998%) Al-stabilized conductor of the magnet against the magnetic loadings experienced during operation at 4.2 K, two continuous sections of Al-alloy (AA) reinforcement are Electron Beam (EB) welded to it. The reinforcements have a section of 24×18 mm and are produced in continuous 2.55 km lengths. The alloy EN AW-6082 has been selected for the reinforcement due to its excellent extrudability, high strength in the precipitation hardened states, high toughness and strength at cryogenic temperature and good EB weldability. Each of the continuous lengths of the reinforcement is extruded billet on billet and press quenched on-line from the extrusion temperature in an industrial extrusion plant. In order to insure the ready EB weldability of the reinforcement onto the pure aluminum of the insert, tight dimensional tolerances and proper surface finish of the reinforcement are required in the as-extruded state. As well, in order to facilitate the winding operation of the conductor, the uniformity of the mechanical properties of the extruded reinforcement, especially at the billet on billet joints, is critical. To achieve these requirements in an industrial environment, substantial effort was made to refine existing production techniques and to monitor critical extrusion parameters during production. This paper summarizes the main results obtained during the establishment of the extrusion line and of the production phase of the reinforcement.