Robotisation of cavity string assembly at CEA

Since 2017, CEA has been developing the use of collaborative robots (cobot) to carry out the steps required to assemble superconducting cavities strings. This development is based on two mains objectives. The first is to reduce the tediousness for operators of certain stages of component cleaning by blowing, so that they can focus on higher value-added tasks. The second is to improve assembly quality by keeping operators, the main sources of particle contamination in cleanrooms, away from open critical RF surfaces. The integration of component cleaning (flange, inter-cavity bellows, etc.) in the cleanroom by the cobot was carried out on the production of ESS cryomodules cavity strings. For future projects, CEA is currently working on the cobotisation of component assembly steps to meet the second objective.