Assembly and Quality Control of the LHC Cryostats at CERN: Motivations, Means, Results and Lessons Learnt

In 2001, the project management decided to perform at CERN the final assembly of the LHC superconducting magnets with cryostat parts and cold masses produced by European Industry in large series. This industrial-like production has required a very significant investment in tooling, production facilities, engineering and quality control efforts, in contractual partnership with a consortium of firms. This unusual endeavour of a limited lifetime represented more than 850,000 working hours spanning over five years, the work being done on a result-oriented basis by the contractor. This paper presents the reasons for having conducted this project at CERN, summarizes the work breakdown structure, the production means and methods, the infrastructure specially developed, the tooling, logistics and quality control aspects of the work performed and the results achieved, in analytical form. Finally, the lessons learnt are outlined.