Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 12:03:27 +0100
From: George MIKENBERG <Giora.Mikenberg@cern.ch>
To: atlas-muon@atlas-lb.cern.ch
Subject: Review of 1999 MUON activities

Dear colleagues:
        
                first let me wish you all a happy and productive year.
If one would like to make a balance of the previous year, the keyword
would be DELAYS, and not only on the central orders (where most of the
timetables have been kept, although with some extra delays due to
corrective measurements), but mainly in the preparatory work at the
majority of the labs to start the production of the module-0's and
subsequent mass production. Indeed, the majority of Module-0's were
expected to be now at CERN, for measurements in the tomograph, while the
reports made at Eilat show that the corresponding date has moved to June
2000. This is a real delay which if combined with the experienced delay
seen by the detectors that moved from Module-0 to production (TGC and
RPC, 8 to 6 months) posses serious doubts in our capability to complete
our spectrometer on-time. It is clear that during the forthcoming year,
and after most of the sites have have acquired enough experience (order
of 5 produced chambers), we will need to review the construction
schedule (including possible ways to speed up production) and
re-evaluate the construction sharing, in order to ensure a minimal
working MUON spectrometer at the start of ATLAS. In the meantime, I
would like to request from the production sites to send to Gregor and
myself a 1/2page monthly report (to be kept confidential) of the
progress in each production site. These monthly reports will permit the
MUON management to send a more accurate monthly review of activities.
It is clear that the success of the project is with the construction
sites, independent of any management, and therefore your help and
motivation is what it will make this project a success (or a failure).

With respect to the most important points that have been achieved during
1999, I would like to mention a few:

1) The RPC passed its chamber and electronics PRR. The Module-0 has been
successfully tested. The start of production is, however, delayed by 6
months.

2) TGC production has started, albeit an 8 months delay with respect to
the original planning. Final construction speed has been achieved and a
total of 160 chambers have been made.

3) The TGC front-end chips have been produced and delivered. The
front-end board PRR was successfully pass.

4) The MDT-PRR-1 was successfully pass. The PRR report was very good and
the green light was given for the production of Module-0's.

5) A BIS chamber was produced using final production tools and within
the expected timetable. Except for a multilayer misalignment due to a
construction accident, and whose consequences were predicted, the
mechanical characteristics of the chamber, as measured by the tomograph,
are within specification. The tube production and testing, with the
exception of the gas tightness test, performed well.

6) Most of the Module-0 tubes have been produced at Michigan and
Cosenza. The quality control have been implemented, and following the
corrections needed in the endplugs design, have achieved the required
specifications.

7) Following an heroic set of tests at Seattle, Protvino, Michigan, CERN
and Cosenza, the O-ring groove problem of the endplugs design was solved
and the design could be finalize.

8) The orders for the tube production, endplugs production and locator
were placed at excellent firms, and within the CORE costs. The obtained
pre-series are of very good quality.

9) Two acceptable options were qualified for ground contact: laser
welding and a new spring solution developed at Protvino.

10) Although after long delays, the automatic wiring machines have been
debugged and constructed.

11) After long delays, and serious problems with humidity effects in
composite materials, a base-line solution has been accepted for the
alignment bars, which consists of monitored metallic bars. Also a
procedure has been accepted to come to conclusions on the forward polar
alignment sensors.

12) Although with delays, the layout drawing approval has been performed
within the MUON community and it will soon start within ATLAS.

13) Major progress has been made in the design and specifications of the
small and big wheels, although, the construction and installation of the
big wheel might go through a new optimization. The ISTC project that
will provide partial funding for the big wheel project has been
approved.

14) The preparatory work for the H8 end cap (and maybe also barrel)
alignment test facility is beginning to take shape. This will constitute
the major full size testing facility of the ATLAS-MUONS.

15) Important progress has been made in having a common LMU-DCS unit
that could satisfy aLL THE atlas-muon needs and could provide the
possibility of using DCS for initialization purposes.

Although the above is an incomplete list, it shows that quite a bit of
actions are taking place within the MUON community, however the major
action, which is to move into the construction face, still has to take
place, and for it to be timely and successful, requires a very strong
will from the production sites.

Best regards and happy new year

George
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