This subproject of EXO was to design a cart that the copper cryostat would be loaded onto outside clean room 1, and then rolled into the clean room for precise placement of the cryostat over the lead shielding already in place. As with everything EXO, the operation had to preserve the cleanliness of the clean room which is why the cart is wrapped in plastic in these pictures. The first few pictures show renderings of the design, and the rest are photos of the operation. The photos come from the EXO E-Log, taken at Stanford and are much appreciated.

Click on any of the thumbnails to get an enlarged view. You are welcome to download any of the images. If they are used for other than private viewing, credit to the EXO collaboration and Bartoszek Engineering would be appreciated.

The design renderings shown here give the overview of what the cart looks like and how it will be used, but the photos show a later version of the design. It made more sense to attach some of the shimming for the hydraulic cylinders to the cart, rather than try to put it in place in the tight space inside the clean room.

The overview

This picture shows the six clean rooms that were originally set up in a building at Stanford that used to have a particle accelerator in it. The reason for using this building is that its walls and ceilings are thick concrete to reduce cosmic ray background that activates the copper in the experiment. This is what everything looked like before it was taken apart and sent to WIPP, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, NM, where it is today.

Craning the cart into the outer clean area

The building that the clean rooms are in is mostly underground, so the cart is lowered from the loading dock at the ground floor of the building down to the floor level and into the outer clean area just outside clean room 1. Since the wall of clean room 1 had to be removed to get the cryostat in, the area outside the clean room became an extension of the clean room.

Pieces of the cart

These pictures show the various structural elements and hydraulics used to lower the cryostat from the cart down to the level of the lead shielding it sits on. The cart rolled on Hilman (or Hilman-like since they are not green) rollers. When the cart was close enough to its final position, small pads with ball bearings were used for small horizontal movements.

Craning the Cryostat

The cryostat was moved onto the cart by crane. The cryostat weighs about seven tons. The first couple of pictures show it being prepared by placing plastic sheets between the copper and the slings so tbat no radio-contamination from the slings could become embedded in the surface of the copper.

The roll in

The first picture in this group shows the view from outside the clean room as the cryostat begins its journey. The rest are all views from inside the clean room.

The alignment and clearances

These pictures show the placement of the cryostat on its bed of lead shielding blocks.

The cryostat sitting on the lead

In these pictures the cart has been disassembled and removed from the clean room. This is where the cryostat will stay throughout the life of the experiment.

Back to the EXO Main Page Page

Back to the Bartoszek Engineering Projects Page

Back to the Bartoszek Engineering Home Page