A drift Tube is the piece on a particle accelerator or neutron
source beam that keeps the beam going straight. It's the vice squad for laser beams (keeps
'em straight). This rather expensive gadget is made from GlidCop, a gold/Copper Alloy that
has a number of desirable properties for high energy experiments. It has a magnetic
doughnut inside which is the basis for the physics that control the beam.  This close
up shows a Drift Tube that was damaged. You can see that something happened to the end
cap. Take a look at the following pictures. Damage to a part is very rare in our shop so
we have explicit Quality Assurance steps that are taken to understand how the damage
occured and how to prevent it in the future.  In the picture above you can see the 3
main pieces. The tube, The chamber, and the magnet. The position of the tube in the
accelerator has to be exact, only then can the tube be used to steer the Neutron Beam. Below
you see 31 Drift Tubes, each with different specifications, no 2 drift tubes are the same.
These are ready for the stem to be "Brazed", a process of welding in a
controlled environment.
You can see how the fixture stabilizes the drift tube for it's final welds. The
process of Construct-Plate-Machine is iterated several times with each Drift Tube.
Many particular featues are included in each one. Some things look rather simple
but must be within .0002 of each other. Making parts that are that close to each other is
what makes Coronado Machine different than the automotove machine shop down the street. |
