sPHENIX discussion of the superconducting solenoid

[Kin Yip <kinyip AT bnl.gov>]

Agenda and materials : https://indico.bnl.gov/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=1309

A brief summary of today's meeting is as follows :

1. We've discussed the schedule about the low-current test.  Roberto Than is telling us that the Cryo group needs two slots
(down-time) for the ERL so that they can do the "tie-in" and field joints.   The natural time to do is during the ERL
laser upgrade.  This may happen in Dec. or in Jan.   D. Phillips added that if the "cathode" in ERL breaks, they would be
down for some time that we can use.

Of course, it all depends on when the He piping modification work can finish.  Paul Orfin told us before/in the meeting that
we'd received 3 bids but one was significantly lower than the other two.  Paul thinks that that company is a reliable
company that we have used before.  He'll have a conference with them to see whether they can meet our schedule
(~9 weeks).


2. The Magnet was rotated last week and we saw a large fraction of the strain gauge resistances did change due to the rotation
as John Haggerty has shown the plots of changes for one set (~45 to 120 deg.).   We don't understand the readings yet ...

Joe Muratore and Paul Orfin in the strain gauge group are looking into those strain gauge readings and analyze.  I have
pointed them to the data files and my spreadsheet of converting from voltages/currents to strain.


3. D. Phillips has informed us that the platform/support is being built to support the valvebox.   It may be just a couple days to finish ...


4. Ray Ceruti and his team have got the permit to start working on valvebox leak check.  There are a lot of uncertainties as
there are lots of potential places for leaks.   In his estimation, we may be able to do the pumping-down in the last week of Aug. 
In the best scenario (ie. the leaks are easy to be detected and fixed), it's possible that we may finish the leak check and can move
the valvebox to its location above the magnet.