Coating Thickness of the LHC Superconducting Strands

In order to determine the time of heat treatment to give to the superconducting Rutherford-type cable, it is essential to know the stabrite (SnAg5%) coating thickness on the superconducting strands. Depending on the heat treatment time applied, the cable will have a contact resistance between strands conform to the LHC specifications. A study on the tin layers thickness was carried out. It concerns the internal and the external strands for all the firms producing these strands for the LHC. The level of control of the tinning process was established for each firm, and correlations between different measuring techniques of the tin layers were achieved, based on the keys process parameters. Finally, a correlation's relationship was found to get an equivalent value of Atomic Adsorption Spectrometry (AAS) from a coulometric result. The AAS measurement gives the total amount of tin in the strand and is the reference nowadays. Thanks to this equivalence, the number of real AAS measurements carried out can be lowered. This paper gives more importance to coulometry as it allows qualifying the coating of the superconducting strands.