Robots help recreate the Big Bang

Automation technology group ABB has announced that two IRB 140 robots were part of the laser welding system that manufactured thousands of stainless steel alloy tubing assemblies for the two accelerator rings of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest and most complex scientific instrument ever built.

The robots performed 54 million precision welding operations to help build the two accelerator rings in the LHC, which made headline news on September 10 when it conducted its inaugural experiment by smashing subatomic particles together at 99.99% the speed of light.

Located in a tunnel 50–150 metres beneath the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) on the Swiss-French border, the LHC has taken 20 years to set up, cost an estimated $10 billion and involved more than 10,000 scientists from 80 countries.

Each tubing assembly is 15–18 m in length and includes an unusually complex arrangement of components. One detail alone of the tubing assembly required 0.3 mm diameter spot welds every 1 mm in axial length.

The position of the welds had to be within 10–15 µm to be effective, though the welds themselves are only 30 µm in diameter.

“This is probably the most precise and demanding application of a standard robot ever devised,” said Chris Moore, a director of Garrandale Systems, who designed the tubing assembly in collaboration with Ferranti Photonics for Accles & Pollock, all of the UK.

“The combination of precision tooling and a standard, though high-performance robot coupled to a high level of robot programming has produced incredible levels of accuracy and repeatability.”