Operational experience and performance of the LHC collimator control system

In order to handle stored beam energies up to 360 MJ, the LHC relies on a collimation system that consists of 100 movable collimators. Compared to other accelerators, the complexity of this system is unique: more than 400 motors and about 600 interlocked position sensors must be controlled in all the machine phases in order to ensure appropriate cleaning and machine protection. In this paper, the operational experience accumulated in the two first years of LHC operation is discussed, focusing in particular on failure and availability during the LHC operation and on the impact of failures on the machine downtime.