The Assembly Experience of the First Cryo-module for HIE-ISOLDE at CERN

The HIE ISOLDE project aims at increasing the energy of the radioactive ion beams of the existing REX ISOLDE facility from the present 3 MeV/u up to 10 MeV/u for A/q to 4.5. The upgrade includes the installation of a superconducting linac in successive phases, for a final layout containing two low-β and four high-β cryo-modules. The first phase involves the installation of two high-B cryo-modules, each housing five high-β superconducting cavities and one superconducting solenoid, aligned within tight tolerances. After having designed and procured the cryo-module components, the first units is now being assembled at CERN, in a dedicated facility including class100 (ISO5) clean rooms equipped with specific tooling. The assembly is foreseen to be ultimate and the cryo-module cold tested by May 2015. In this paper, after a brief description of the main design features of the cryo-module , we present the assembly of the first unit, including the methodology, special tools, assembly procedures and quality assurance aspects. We report on the experience from this first assembly, including tests results, and present prospects for the next-coming cryo-module assemblies.