HiLumi prepares its construction phase with industry
The High-Luminosity LHC project is now seeking industrial suppliers and collaborations to start the construction phase and make the high-luminosity upgrade happen. The “HiLumi LHC goes to Industry” event held on 26 June aimed to foster R&D collaborations and knowledge exchange between CERN and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - the perfect opportunity for them to match their capacity with the requirements of HiLumi.
Isabel Bejar-Alonso (High-Luminosity LHC Technical Coordinator) addresses the participants of the “HiLumi LHC goes to Industry” event held at IdeaSquare on 26 June.To reach the 14 TeV and 3000 fb-1 goal of the High-Luminosity LHC, more than 1.2 km of the current LHC machine will need to be replaced with high-technology components that require cutting-edge technologies. HiLumi experts have already identified more than 65 technology areas and even more challenging components that need to be manufactured, assembled and tested before installation begins during Long Shutdown 2 and Long Shutdown 3.
The aim of the “HiLumi LHC goes to Industry” event held on 26 June was to connect CERN with potential industrial partners that could deal with the specific technical challenges of the High-Luminosity LHC. “We would like to increase the number of industrial companies working on HiLumi,” says Isabel Bejar-Alonso, High-Luminosity LHC Technical Coordinator. “In line with EU efforts, our goal is to foster R&D collaborations and to push knowledge exchange between research institutes and companies to prepare the field for the deployment of the European commercial potential.”
Last Friday, leading companies in the fields of superconductivity, cryogenics, power electronics, vacuum and high-precision mechanics met High-Luminosity LHC project engineers at the IdeaSquare premises to explore the technical and commercial challenges emerging from the design and procurement for the upgraded LHC accelerator, and to match them with state-of-the-art industrial solutions. The event attracted more than 140 industrial representatives from 19 countries (including 17 from Member States), with a great number of them from SMEs. “When CERN was building the LHC, due to the need for big quantities, generally only the largest companies were involved,” says Bejar-Alonso. “The smaller ones often did not have the expertise and resources to work with CERN. Now, we encourage SMEs from all our Member and Associated Member States to become suppliers to HiLumi.” In preparation for the event, experts, with the help of the national Industrial Liaison Officers, reached out to all member and associated member states to invite potentially interested companies to the event.
During the event, more than 130 business-to-business meetings took place. “We are incredibly happy to see the large number of companies interested in working with HiLumi. During the summer, we are going to make available and further distribute the materials presented at the event, in order to reach as many potential suppliers as possible,” assures Bejar-Alonso. The project team is already planning to organise a similar event for industrial services - such as civil engineering, etc. – to take place in autumn 2015.
