A Report on the Operational Reliability of the Fermilab Main Ring Magnets

Abstract

Over the past three years the magnets in Fermilabs main ring have failed at a rate of 3.5% per year. As a result of the evolution of fabrication techniques six magnet types can be identified. This report presents the magnet failure statistics for the past seven years and draws conclusions as to what is expected in the future for each fabrication technique. Operational conditions at the time of each failure have been recorded for the past two years, and this information has been used to make hardware changes and procedural changes to reduce the number of failures resulting from causes external to the magnet. A black listing technique is used to find magnets which are close to failure; these magnets are removed during maintenance periods to prevent interruption to the physics program.