Speaker
Description
The ETpathfinder prototype in Maastricht is dedicated not only to developing and validating key technologies for the Einstein Telescope (ET), but also to testing guidelines and procedures aimed to speeding up and reducing risks in construction of ET.
The ET will require more than 250 seismic isolation systems. Traditionally, in gravitational-wave observatories, a significant fraction of assembly, testing, and commissioning activities is performed directly at the final location inside the vacuum tower. However, due to limitations in space, working conditions, and allowed working durations within the underground infrastructure of the ET, it is uncertain whether this installation approach will be efficient.
Within ETpathfinder, a different procedure has been tested. The inner mechanics are assembled, tested and tuned outside the vacuum system. The commissioned system is then hoisted into the vacuum vessel and only minor retuning is required. A similar strategy could be applied to the ET by assembling and testing the isolation systems in a facility located at the surface, where multiple suspensions could be commissioned in parallel, before transporting them underground.
This poster compares the commissioning operations of two identical suspended benches at ETpathfinder: the Beam Splitter Tower, commissioned using the traditional method, and the Injection Tower, commissioned following this new procedure.