Surface Polishing Facility for Superconducting RF Cavities at CERN

A new SRF cavity polishing facility which covers the needs for present projects like the HL-LHC and its CRAB cavities as well as ongoing and future activities in the frame of the FCC study was commissioned at CERN in 2019. This facility can handle chemical and electrochemical polishing baths, can process both niobium and copper-based cavities on a wide range of geometries, starting at 400 MHz up to 1.3 GHz for elliptical type of cavities and more complex shapes as defined by the DQW and RFD CRAB design. The main subassemblies of this facility are presented. Some important design details and materials choices of the facility will be briefly discussed together with the range of operational parameters. First results on different substrates and geometries are discussed in terms of surface finishing and polishing rate uniformity.