Qualification of a Glassy Carbon Blade for a LHC Fast Vacuum Valve

To protect sensitive LHC machine systems against an unexpected gas inrush, a fast vacuum valve system is under development at CERN. The design of the shutter has to be compatible with dynamic loads occurring during the fast closure, namely in the 20 ms range. The material has to fulfil all main requirements such as transparency, high melting temperature, dust free and adequate leak tightness. A development of a blade in vitreous carbon material has been carried out at CERN. The blade has been successfully integrated in a commercial pendulum fast valve. In this paper, the vacuum and mechanical qualification tests are presented.