The Provision Of 128 DUNE APA Stainless Steel Frames

The DUNE Anode Plane Assemblies (APAs) will form the major part of the DUNE far site detector. We are finishing the prototype APAs for installation in a cryostat at CERN and preparing for the full production run of up to 128 APAs. The APAs are composed of large stainless steel metal frames and made of thousands of turns of wire, roughly 24 kilometres for each APA. It's an engineering challenge to wind the wire around the frames and build the wire chambers. A fully assembled frame is expected 'in spec' with all the associated documents or 'doc pack' including material certificates, ITP (Inspection Test plan), mechanical inspections, NDT (Non-Destructive Testing) etc. Full qualification (inspection) by ourselves will be needed in the first batch of two frames. This will include visual inspection, an inspection of holes and machined parts and welding quality. The company will allow us access to do these qualification checks.