Sliding force measurements on the LHC RF contact Plug In Modules at 15 K and in UHV

Some sliding RF contacts mounted in the Plug In Modules in the LHC interconnects failed during a thermal cycle between 4.2 K and room temperature. Gold-coated copperberyllium RF fingers buckled during the warm up of the machine, indicating that one or more parameters during operation (e.g. the friction coefficient under vacuum) could be different from what was used in the calculations. This report describes the measurement of the longitudinal forces acting on the sliding RF fingers at operating vacuum and temperatures.