The first major contract for the CMS experiment at CERN’s LHC was completed last month when the last of 120 forged iron blocks rolled off the production line at the Izhora factory, St Petersburg. The blocks, weighing up to 41 tonnes, will make up the experiment’s barrel magnet yoke. The occasion was marked by a ceremonies and a press conference in St Petersburg on 12 January.
Izhora won the contract following an international call to tender by CMS magnet contractor, German firm Deggendorfer Werft und Eisenbau GmbH. The contract, valued at DM 4 million, was for 3500 tonnes of forged and machined iron split into 120 blocks and produced in five batches for the five rings of the CMS barrel yoke. One of the reasons that Izhora won the contract is that there are few factories in the world that are capable of forging blocks on the scale required by CMS.
The blocks travel from St Petersburg to Deggendorf near Munich, where they are further machined and assembled. The trial assembly of the first ring was in September 1999 and the blocks for the final ring are now on their way to the German factory. After test assembly at Deggendorf, they will be shipped to CERN for final assembly in July.
Izhora has already supplied iron for experiments at Brookhaven, DESY and Fermilab, as well as for the Delphi experiment at CERN.
