Fabrication of niobium superconducting accelerator cavity by electron beam welded joints

Fabrication of superconducting cavities has been taken up as a part of the development of accelerator driven sub critical system (ADSS) by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Large grain (RRR>99) pure niobium was chosen as the material for the cavity. Niobium, for its application as superconductor requires extremely high quality joints, feasible only by electron beam welding at high vacuum environment. An indigenously developed 100kV, 4kW high vacuum electron beam welding machine has been utilized to carry out the welding operations. Planning of the weld sequences was chalked out. Holding fixtures for the cavity, consists of seven numbers of joints have been fabricated beforehand. A few coupons were welded for optimization of the weld parameters and for inspection of the weld purity by indigenously developed secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The report describes the welding equipment and the stage wise joining operations of the cavity in details and also discusses the qualification testing of the welded cavity.