After a shutdown period of more than five months long, along which a thorough maintenance campaign on the injector took place, 90keV proton beam, with more than 100mA current, was extracted again this week, in preparation for the last injector commissioning campaign that will span over 5 weeks until November 4th.
From October 3rd until November 4th the last campaign of the accelerator commissioning will take place. This time will be used to fine tune the source before the RFQ is finally assembled attached to it by the end of November. To assure the optimal condition of the injector for this important stage, a thorough maintenance campaign has been performed along the summer, with more than 70 interventions including vacuum system, PPS and control system upgrade, recalibration of high voltage power supplies, RF equipment and the complete cleanup and reassembly of the injector column.
In parallel, during this period, installation activities have progressed steadily. In the vault, the RFQ finalized the assembly of the four super modules and completed the bead pull measurement tests satisfactorily, in preparation for the last piping and cabling works. In addition, a task force from CIEMAT has been working on MEBT (bunchers, quadrupole magnets) and D-Plate (which hosts most of the beam instrumentation) to finalize the mechanical installation, pressure and vacuum tests and signal cabling. Regarding the RF system, all eight chains for the RFQ and two for the bunchers have been installed commissioning will start soon. Currently, coaxial transmission lines are under the final stage of installation.
