Status of High-Field Rutherford Cable Production for the HL-LHC Project

Abstract

The High-Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) is underway at CERN. The upgrade will rely, among other magnets, on the inner triplet quadrupoles (MQXF). The coils of these magnets are wound from $\text{Nb}_{3}\text{Sn}$ Rutherford cables experiencing magnetic fields of up to 12 T. High performance and precise control of cable dimensions (within a few µm) are of primary importance for these accelerator magnets. The paper reviews the main characteristics of these cables and addresses the critical points of the design with respect to their use in HL-LHC. Then the status of the production of the superconducting cables is reported, with particular emphasis on the QA/QC procedures and data. Those procedures are performed to ensure that the series production cables conform to the tight technical requirements. Non-conformities identified during cable production are also presented and discussed.