Many projects around the ALS were completed during the Winter 2020 shutdown. Some of these improvements will benefit users now, and others provide additional utility that will be required in the future. In response to user feedback, we have endeavored to divide projects into the smallest possible segments in order to decrease the amount of time required for each shutdown.
- The cold heads on the superconducting bend magnets were replaced, which should be done every 18 months
- The storage ring radio frequency (RF) system underwent significant troubleshooting and upgrading
- Hundreds of hours of accelerator maintenance and smaller beamline jobs were checked off
- ALS-U and ALS worked successfully together to implement the wall preparation tasks
- 46 penetrations were completed during this shutdown
- The aluminum vacuum chambers inside the correctors are starting to be replaced with stainless steel pieces. Co-located with the sextuple magnets, these lower conductivity chambers are more transparent to fast variation of the magnetic field and are necessary to increase the feedback bandwidth. Twelve chambers have been replaced, and ten more will follow.
