CRYRING@ESR - Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research

18 Chapter 5. CRYRING as Test Bench for FAIR
5.4 UHV Control and Interlock System
The vacuum controls shall be realized as an industrial control system based on Siemens SIMATIC
PLC and a commercial SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) product in connection
with the UNICOS (UNified Industrial COntrol System) framework introduced at CERN
for the control of the LHC cryogenics. All devices are connected directly to the PLC and thus
render a very robust solution. It is being developed and delivered as in-kind contribution by the
FAIR member state Slovenia.
It would be favorable to implement and operate a vacuum control installation early before
implementing it in FAIR machines. Evaluation of the complete system and training of the
vacuum group staff would be possible this way. CRYRING provides all necessary vacuum
control aspects, including a bakeout system. The additional cost for the FAIR vacuum controls
is included in Section 7.2.
5.5 Radiation Safety and Access Control System
The CRYRING Cave-B could be removed from existing ZKS system and replaced by an early
installation of the FAIR PSS (personnel safety system). New access gate infrastructure technology
and procedures could be tested and optimized in order to implement a well-tested system
later with the FAIR buildings.
5.6 Controls for Technical Infrastructure
The development of instrumentation and control technology will be necessary in order to control
and optimize the supply of various FAIR facilities with electricity, cooling and other auxiliary
media. For instance, the flow reduction of cooling water or cooling air for facilities standing idle
would considerably reduce the required load on the cooling systems. A similar consideration
would probably offer a chance for minimizing the capacity of the electricity installations.
The new control systems could be tested also at the CRYRING at a time when no other
accelerators and experiments are in operation.
5.7 Preparation for FAIR Commissioning
Practical experience from earlier accelerator projects shows that, as far as possible, it must
be avoided to finally test and commission accelerator components and control system at the
same time as the commissioning with ion beams takes place. Precious beam time would be lost
for time consuming trouble shouting especially of controls software and hardware components.
It is without any controversy that, compared to the regular operation, the commissioning of
accelerators usually causes considerably higher demands on both the control system and the
operating staff.
5.7.1 Development and Test of Special Commissioning Software
The presently practiced commissioning concept at the existing accelerator system at GSI requires
to a large extend the intervention of experienced accelerator physicists and engineers. The
approach to optimal machine settings is done by many steps of human interpretation of beam
diagnostic measurements and subsequent commands to the controls software to suitably change
settings. Not only the extremely tight time schedule for the commissioning of the new FAIR
facilities but also the requirements of a highly efficient operation with time sharing between