Manufacture of superconducting niobium cavity parts by hydropercussion punching

Abstract

A complete cycle of manufacturing all parts of superconducting niobium cavities which comprise two half-cells, two drift tubes, and two flanges each has been developed. The cavity half-cells are manufactured by hydropercussion punching, which has a number of advantages over the instrumental stamping technique. For the first time, the diagram of formability of ultrapure niobium has been experimentally obtained for hydropercussion punching and the key parameters of the process have been determined that ensure complete deep-drawing of workpieces, viz., the value of the limit drawing ratio of ultrapure niobium that is 1.92 at a specific impact energy of 0.42 MJ/m². The deviations of the half-cell dimensions from the rated values do not exceed 0.1 mm. Production tools required for all manufacturing steps have been created. The parameters of machining of the niobium cavity parts prior to welding have been experimentally established.