Magnet Group Charter

Jefferson Laboratory benefits from organizing and centralizing sufficient superconducting and resistive magnet expertise to support existing and future magnets at the lab. The Magnet Group is a Technical Support Group within the Experimental Nuclear Physics Division which fulfills this role.

In order to further JLab’s and DOE missions, the Magnet Group may, as required, also provide assistance to other DOE national laboratories and external entities. The Magnet Group will fulfill their purpose in a professional manner by always treating their customers and their colleagues with respect and courtesy. The Magnet Group shall build on the diversity within the team and JLab in order to accomplish its mission.

Mission and Goals

To provide magnet expertise for all magnet types, non-superconducting and superconducting, to the Jefferson Lab Nuclear Physics Operations and User communities, as outlined below:

  • Provide proactive support to the Halls and Laboratory Divisions when issues arise with the existing magnets
  • Devise and implement proactive measures to improve operational reliability of the magnets, in coordination with the Experimental Halls and Division.
  • Take responsibility to coordinate and implement global solutions that allow an effective sharing of constrained resources – e.g., cryogenic integration, magnet controls.
  • As needed, and in consultation with the Hall Engineers, work on magnet projects related to upcoming user-led nuclear physics experiments.
  • Develop credible engineering solutions for projects of high interest to the lab involving magnets, which are both further away in time but which also need development to be approved, funded or implemented.

The magnet group will work in strong synergy with the Hall Engineering and Technical Groups, and other Physics and Engineering Division Technical Support Groups.

Composition and Expertise

The Magnet Group comprises six engineers and two mechanical designers with expertise and experience in the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of superconducting magnets. The group also includes personnel with expertise in Cryogenics.

If the Magnet Group is involved in the detailed design and fabrication of a magnet system or associated ancillary systems, and requires expertise that is not immediately available within the group, supplemental personnel will be provided by the hall or project for which they are working or by other support groups within the laboratory (e.g. PLC or LabView programming expertise).

The Magnet Group’s core expertise includes the following:

  1. Electromagnetic engineering design (including quench modeling, A.C. loss calculations)
  2. Cryogenic or thermal engineering design (including vacuum design and cooling circuits)
  3. Mechanical engineering design (including structures and internal support systems)
  4. Mechanical CAD
  5. Troubleshooting, reliability improvements and back-up on-call duties for existing magnet systems and sub-systems.
  6. Electrical design (including current leads and quench protection)
  7. Component development and test
  8. Procurement, system integration, installation and commissioning
  9. System specifications, documentation and operating instructions
  10. Vendor management

As necessary the following additional expertise may be brought in from elsewhere in the lab:

  1. Electrical CAD
  2. Instrumentation and control (sensors, data acquisition, PLC and EPICS programming)
  3. Magnet and overall system QA/QC (including magnetic field measurements)
  4. Design of and support for power supplies

Operational Support

The four experimental Halls own more than 20 superconducting magnets, and a variety of resistive magnets. The direct operational support, including on-call duties, both for existing and (most) new magnets, in the Experimental Halls and other Divisions, lies with those groups.

The Magnet Group will only be called upon when extra expertise is needed, for example to investigate the cause of a fast dump or quench of a superconducting magnet or to troubleshoot a magnet-related issue, at the request of either the Hall Leaders or Director of Accelerator Operations (or delegate).

Nonetheless, the Magnet Group will be proactively involved in the various Nuclear Physics Operations activities, become highly familiar with special magnets and associated infrastructure systems, and will actively seek ways to minimize down times.

The Magnet Group will similarly be called upon for the design and engineering of special new magnets, at the request of Physics Division Management.

Operating Guidelines

  1. The group will have a group leader.
  2. The group leader will report directly to the AD of the Physics Division.
  3. The group will have its own non-labor budget and will normally book to a charge code related to nuclear physics operations.
  4. The group members will book to the relevant charge code when providing services as part of the Work for Others scheme or other defined DOE projects, either within the lab or externally.
  5. The group leader will have the final word on decisions affecting the whole team.
  6. Meetings should have an agenda, minutes, action items and task owners as necessary.
  7. Workloads will be distributed within the team via team discussion or by the group leader.
  8. Internal and external communications (especially via email) should include the whole team.
  9. Conflicts within the team will be dealt with as a team in a professional manner with the group leader facilitating the discussion and process.
  10. Additional resources will be temporarily brought into the team as appropriate to supplement the existing skill-sets. If from a Division other than Physics, Service Level Agreements will be set up with the respective home division managers.

Wherever possible, the group will strive to develop commonalities between and across sub-systems in order to promote seamless integration and to ease maintenance and operations at the laboratory - cryogenics and control and instrumentation are examples.