Quality Assurance
Quality assurance runs from conductor qualification through assembly and commissioning, so the built machine matches the design that was analyzed.
Building what was designed
A design is only meaningful if the built machine matches it. Quality assurance is the discipline that keeps fabrication, assembly, and commissioning true to the analyzed design, so that when the machine is measured at the gates, it is the designed machine being tested and not an unintended variant.
Where QA applies
- Conductor: REBCO tape qualified against current-density and defect criteria
- Fabrication: coils, vessel, and blanket built to tolerance
- Assembly: components installed correctly and in sequence
- Commissioning: subsystems verified before and during bring-up
Why it matters for the gates
If a magnet falls short of 16.84 T, QA records must show whether it was designed short, built short, or damaged, otherwise a gate miss cannot be diagnosed. QA makes the pre-registered comparison meaningful by ensuring deviations are traceable to a cause. It is the record that lets a miss teach something.
Feeding the learning curve
QA data from FOAK, which tolerances were hard to hold, which steps introduced defects, feeds directly into the manufacturing plan for NOAK and BOAK. Quality assurance is therefore both a control on the first build and an input to standardizing the later ones.
The QA program governs a machine not yet built. Its purpose is to ensure that the design and simulation values, once tested on hardware, are tested on the machine that was actually intended.