Alumina ceramic chambers are widely used in accelerator units for injection, fast extraction and beam excitation. These components are placed in fast pulsed (range of nanosecond) deflector magnets as kicker, buncher or scanner application. Unlike metallic components, ceramic components avoid shielding the rapidly changing external magnetic fields. Furthermore, metallic tubes would heat up considerably due to counter-induced eddy currents. To prevent static charges and the emission of secondary electrons on the ceramic surface, the inner surfaces of the ceramic chambers can be coated with a high-resistance thin layer.

The requirements for these components are: Sufficient mechanical strength against atmospheric pressure and resilience through installation and operation. Techniques in this field have been further developed, following the requirements in special applications. For example, a method has been developed to make the transitions between the material zones inside the chambers as smooth as possible. This is of particular interest in the field of electron accelerators, where impedance changes are to be avoided.

The sample images show a ceramic chamber with a smooth transition from a polygonal octagonal contour at the flange entrance to the inner racetrack shape of the ceramic. Client: SigmaPhi, Location: Soleil Electron Synchrotron near Paris – Voilà!

The production area in Hall 1 of NTG’s main building is brightly illuminated.
288 old fluorescent tubes with conventional ballast (CCG) of 36 watts each and 7 watts of power loss for the CCG have been replaced by 121 new LED luminaires with daylight-dependent control of 53.1 watts each.

With this measure, an annual electricity saving of almost 75,000 kWh can be achieved. In addition to the associated, not inconsiderable cost savings and significantly improved illumination of the production hall, we are also pleased about an annual CO2 reduction of over 20 tons.
With the new LED lighting, we are making another small contribution on our way to energy neutrality. We started this journey in 2009 with the installation of NTG’s own solar plant, which fortunately exceeded the limit of 2 million kilowatt hours generated in 2020. Further steps will follow!

The 11th High Level Expert Meeting (HLEM) will take place from March 16 to 18, 2021.

In order to manufacture ultra-precise and high-tech optical components and to be capable of further miniaturization, reliable and extremely precise measurement technology is required.

Particularly in the field of asphere metrology, many new advancements were achieved,
new measurement procedures were developed and precision was noticeably improved.
Especially the measurement of optical elements with the highest accuracy is anything but trivial.
Hence, only the best manufacturers of measurement technology manage to meet this high
standard.

The upcoming conference is all about the following topics:

■ Presentation of the results of the round robin
■ New developments in measuring techniques for aspherical, free-form and cylindrical lenses
■ Manufacturing and measurement of metal optics
■ Measurement of unmounted aspheres
■ Inner centration of aspheres
■ Other topics related to asphere and free-form metrology or production

Download here the current program

The latest and largest investment in terms of dimensions has recently been integrated into our machine park. With the successful commissioning of the Correa Magna-75 travelling column milling machine, even the largest components can now be manufactured at NTG. Mechanical components up to a length of 7.5m and a height of up to 4m with a total weight of up to 20t can be milled with highest precision in one clamping.

The insertion process turned out to be much more complex than expected. The ground-level arrangement of the machine’s plate fields required a 4m-deep foundation. This was additionally secured with 47 concrete piles sunk into the ground to a depth of up to 7m. The construction for the foundation itself took more than 7 months. The actual installation of the machine also required measured work, as the tower of the machine extends up to a few centimeters below the hall crane.

The flexibility of NTG’s own production is considerably increased by this investment and meets the most demanding requirements. We are also happy to provide the machine for the production of your components. We are looking forward to your inquiries 

Here you can see the Correa Magna 75 travelling column milling machine in action

Technical data:
Travels:   (x,y,z): 7.500 x 1.500 x 4.000 mm – 5 axes
spindle motor: 52 kW – 1.375 Nm – 6.000 rpm
1st plate field: 4.500 x 3.000 x 300 mm
2nd plate field: 1.500 x 3.000 x 300 mm
rotary table: ø 2.000 mm – 20 t
Linear axis: W=1,500 mm – 20t

We are very honored to have been invited to participate in the workshop “Experiences During Hadron LINAC Commissioning”, which was organized by CIEMAT and GSI in the framework of ARIES-ADA.
Dr. Alexander Bechtold represented NTG with a presentation titled “LINAC Production and Commissioning from a Company’s Perspective” , in which we reported on some recent linac projects such as the MYRRHA RFQ, the IH Linac for VECC India and more.

Here is the complete presentation