Speaker
Description
The CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider features a high-precision electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) made of 61,200 lead tungstate crystals in its central (barrel) part. The crystals are both heavy and fragile, requiring extreme care during handling. As part of the HL-LHC upgrade, the ECAL barrel front-end electronics will be replaced, requiring the extraction, refurbishment, and re-insertion of all 36 supermodules (SM), each weighing about 3 tons, within a strict schedule of the technical operations inside the CMS cavern during Long Shutdown 3. A specialized machine, the Enfourneur, will be used for SM extraction. To accelerate operations, a second Enfourneur has been developed, replacing hydraulic actuators with electrical motors and controls. The new system manages three movements: rotation to the insertion angle, forward-backward motion, and controlled SM push-pull. Safety of SMs handling is ensured by numerous sensors and an advanced control system. A touchpad interface provides real-time control of SMs positioning with extreme accuracy, thanks to the implementation of electric motors and related controls, and operational safety, offering to the machine operator predefined movements, fine adjustments, and a continuous monitoring of the forces applied by the machine and ongoing deformations on the most critical metallic carpentry structures. This paper details the Enfourneur 2 design, commissioning and operational performance after an intensive testing campaign carried out at CERN.
| Paper status | Proceeding files received |
|---|