Mobile CT-System for In-situ Inspection in the LHC at CERN

For the inspection of certain critical elements of the LHC machine a mobile computed tomography system has been developed and built. This instrument has to satisfy stringent space, volume and weight requirements in order to be transportable and usable to any interconnection location in the LHC tunnel. Particular regions of interest in the interconnection zones between adjacent magnets are the plug in modules (PIM), the soldered splices in the superconducting bus-bars and the interior of the quench diode container. This system permits detailed inspection of these regions without needing to break the insulation vacuum. Limited access for the x-ray tube and the detector required the development of a special type of partial tomography, together with suitable reconstruction techniques for 3 D volume generation from radiographic projections. The layout of the complete machine, the limited angle tomography, as well as a number of radiographic and tomographic inspection results is presented.