The fine art of preparing a vacuum

<b>The vacuum chambers, or beam pipes, of the LHC experiments are located right at the interface between the detectors and the accelerator, and are therefore crucial to the LHC project as a whole. In this domain, the ALICE and CMS experiments have just passed an important milestone, with the completion of the first of CMS's two end-cap vacuum chambers, together with the completion and bakeout of an 18-metre section of the ALICE vacuum chamber. These complex projects, for which CERN's AT/VAC Group is responsible, involved dozens of people over a number of years. <br> </b>