Materion Honored with CMS Crystal Award

The Beryllium Beam Pipe is an essential component of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector upgrade at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

October 27, 2014 - Materion has been contributing to the exciting scientific research happening at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest particle accelerator located in the CERN Lab under the Swiss/French border for many years. Materion Electrofusion in Fremont, California, has provided seven of the beryllium beam pipes currently installed in the LHC experiments. On October 13, Materion was honored by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) group at CERN with their "Crystal Award" for the work we did delivering the CMS beryllium beam pipe. Materion is only one of 19 companies to have ever received the Crystal Award since the award's inception in 2000.

The website that explains the CMS awards notes,"After many years of very careful and innovative work, the CMS collaboration has successfully constructed an outstanding LHC detector that fully meets the vision and performance requirements conceived at the start of CMS. Many people have committed a significant fraction of their working lives to the success of the CMS detector. CMS, through the Collaboration Board, would like to recognize those who have made a unique and outstanding personal contribution to this achievement." 

In a letter to Materion from Jorgen D'Hondt, CMS Collaboration Board Chair, states, "We have the pleasure to announce that Materion has been awarded the CMS Crystal Award thanks to the excellent work done for the fabrication and delivery to CERN of the new central beam pipe, an essential component of the CMS detector upgrade."

An Overview of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Facility

At the $10 billion LHC, two beams of subatomic particles called "hadrons" travel in opposite directions inside a 17-mile tunnel in the machine, accelerated to nearly the speed of light, gaining energy as they go, until they smash into each other. That smashing of atomic particles and the aftermath of what emerges from those collisions are what scientists are studying. 

The beryllium in the beam pipes allows the subatomic particles that CERN is searching for to pass from the vacuum to the detectors unobstructed because of its low atomic number and low density. Those properties make beryllium the material of choice surrounding the collision region in collider particle physics experiments. Additionally, beryllium's stiffness allows it to remain dimensionally stable, even with the required ultra high vacuum (UHV) inside.

Some of the other benefits of using beryllium include its thermal stability, which allows it to perform well at temperatures only a few degrees above absolute zero; its low atomic number, which keeps it from becoming radioactive with all of the radiation bombarding it; and, its lack of magnetism, which allows the system of multi-pole magnets to steer and focus the particle beam without interference.

Materion is pleased to continue to provide the precision components needed to continue to achieve scientific breakthroughs.

"It has been both an honor and a privilege to work with the highly talented people at CERN to push the boundaries of beryllium fabrication technology and to solve some of the big scientific problems of our day," said Edward Hefter, VP/GM Materion Electrofusion.