SRF Clean Room Facility at NSCL

Preparations for testing a quarter-wave cavity from INFN Legnaro.

    Due to the extremely high electric fields generated in SRF cavities, significant infrastructure is required to properly prepare and maintain the surfaces of these accelerating structures.  Elemental in this process is a clean room environment.

    Within the Class 100 clean room environment, final cleaning of the cavities and related components is done using a ultra-high purity, high pressure water rinse as well as some surface cleaning with low volumes (< 5 liters) of solvents such as ethanol.  The final assembly of the cavity for testing is also done in the clean room environment.

    Adjacent to the Class 100 clean room, there is a Class 10 000 room which is a transition area, providing for personnel gowning and entrance to the Class 100 area.  The Class 10 000 room is used for initial material cleaning with soap, water, and ultrasonic processes as well as for assembly of larger structural systems associated with the cavity, e.g. an insert for a vertical test Dewar.  A sealable hatch of about 4 feet by 4 feet is provided in the ceiling of the Class 10 000 clean room area.  All mechanical systems and HVAC are installed on the clean room roof.  The layout of the facility is shown below.  Both the Class 100 and the Class 10,000 areas are housed within a high bay area with a cement slab floor.

Layout Diagram -- PDF format, 66 KB