From FHMIKE@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il Fri Dec 17 22:11:21 1999 Date: Mon, 02 Aug 99 10:14:53 +0300 From: G Mikenberg To: atlas-muon@atlas-lb.cern.ch Subject: Update on MUON activities Dear colleagues: here follows a short status report of the various activities in the MUON community since the MDT-PRR1: 1) W. Blum has investigated the problem of cracks in the Noryl. The preliminary report can be found in the MUON Web page: http://nicewww.cern.ch/~blum/Norylcracks.html The main conclusion is that with proper care, one does not expect this to be a problem. 2) The number of points to be screwed between the MDT tubes and the the ground plate that makes the Faraday cage has been investigated by the Boston group. It was found that two screws are needed to provide a good Faraday cage (the report can be found in the MUON Web page under http://bmc.bu.edu/bmc/faraday/faraday.pdf). The thickness the material to make the ground plate, without creating mechanical forces is being investigated (Boston and Freiburg).The Freiburg group has checked that the position of the second screw at the present ground hole position in the end-plug, does not produce any electrical problem (no ground current). A report will soon appear. Conclusion: no need to change the present location or number of ground holes in the end plug design. 3) A small number of changes have been introduced in the end-plug design, which were discussed in the TO meeting. A note summarizing those minor changes will be send by Frank Linde. 4) The tender for the end-plug was opened on July 15th. One company with excellent experience in molding and with very good subcontractor for machining (NIEF, France) had the lowest offer. Various visits to the companies involved were then made by Francesco and it is clear that they understood the work involved and the demands. The internal ATLAS-MUON Finance Committee meeting took place on July 23rd and the procedure to place the order was approved under the chairmanship of Giancarlo. Following that, the Letter of Intend was faxed to the company on July 29th. Although the final details of the contract still remain to be completed, Francesco has made an excellent job, which will permit to obtain the most sensitive component of the MDT project at a cost consistent with the CORE estimates and place the contract with a highly qualified company. 5) In order to prepare for the MDT-PRR2, an order has gone out with an Israeli company to perform an engineering study of the installation of the end-cap chambers. The company is expected to: i) Develop the installation procedure and prepare a description of the methods and toolying required, ii) performed a conceptual design of the jigs and tools required, iii) develop drawings, bill of quantities and specifi cations for a tender, iv) prepare the tender documents and v) develop a timetable for the approved installation method. If the procedure works well, we might use it also for future studies. 6) A meeting has taken place between the various people involved in the DCS, within the MUON community, and H. Burckhart. It was agreed that, although the Temperature and field measurements of the MDT will be under the responsibility of the NIKHEF group, the other functions (threshold, HV, LV, local electronics temperatures, etc), will be don within a common system that will be developed in common by the MDT, RPC, TGC and also the CSC. This system will also be used to download the start-up values in the local boxes. 7) The BIS module-0 has been completed and will be send to CERN to be measured in the Tomograph. In order to be called Module-0, a final measurement of the leak rate in the tubes has still to be performed. This measurement will be performed after the measurement in the tomograph. Congratulations to the Greek colleagues for a timely job. 8) A second site review took place in Cosenza and Rome. The review was very good and a report will be made available by Chris soon. 9) Problems with missing end-plugs at production sites: a total of 3500 end-plug bodies are missing by the production sites (excluding MPI, NIKHEF and Potvino) to make the Module-0 chambers. Since the preseries from NIEF is expected only in November, a method has to be found to obtain the missing plugs for the production of the Module-0. To provide the collaboration with the needed end-plug bodies, it is intended to give to the NIEF subcontractors a fraction of the 1200 no machined bodies (made at Protvino) to be machined. This will clearly not satisfied the needs and the MPI group has offered to produce more end-plugs in their pre-series to satisfied the needs. We expect to have results from their preseries in August and they will be communicated to the collaboration. 10) Gas leak problems: gas leak problems have been observed in tubes made at Athens and Cosenza. The gas comes between the outer Al ring and the Noryl body. The problem is not understood and is under investigation. The moment that the reason for the leak will be found, a note will be send to the collaboration. Best regards George ________________________________________________________________________________ >> This mail has been sent to everyone on the atlas-muon list. >> The list is automatically generated daily from the Atlas members database. >> To change your e-mail address, use "xuserinfo" or "cuserinfo" >> on any CERN central machine. To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a mail to: >> Atlas.Secretariat@cern.ch giving the list name and the action to be taken. ________________________________________________________________________________