About the client

The European Spallation Source ERIC is a multi-disciplinary research facility based on the world’s most powerful pulsed neutron source.

What did TECHNIA do?

TECHNIA has helped ESS to implement CATIA 3D modeling and ENOVIA’s PLM platform as part of its processes.

What were the results?

ESS has been able to use ENOVIA and CATIA software to track Word and PDF documents, and to track 3D modeling of the new facility.

“Now we have over 300 users, but in five years we anticipate over 1,000 users. It is a work in progress, but we are constantly updating.”
Colin Carlile, Chief Executive and Director General, European Spallation Source (ESS)

The European Spallation Source (ESS), in partnership with 17 other European countries, is building the world’s leading facility for neutron research in Lund, Sweden. Call it a Nordic CERN. CATIA 3D modeling and the ENOVIA PLM platform are used in the process.

European Spallation Source (ESS)

Having broken ground on a greenfield site in 2014, the European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund, Sweden, aims to be a leading research facility in the field of material research. The meticulous planning of this large complex has been in the works for a long time and continues today.

Spallation is the process in which fragments of material (spall) are ejected from a body due to impact or stress. In nuclear physics, spallation is the process in which a heavy nucleus emits numerous neutrons as a result of being hit by a high-energy particle.

Specifically, the ESS, in partnership with 17 other European countries, plans to build the world’s leading facility for neutron research and be fully operational by 2025. Call it a Nordic CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research). In such a global, interactional, and academic environment, document handling is of the utmost importance.

So far, TECHNIA and its partners have implemented ENOVIA to track Word and PDF documents and CATIA to track 3D modeling of the new facility for electrical, piping, and tubing diagrams.

A Complex Project

“The European Spallation Source is a complex project that brings together scientific and industrial partners from more than 17 different countries. CATIA and ENOVIA are proven systems that we believe will allow us to share and update documents with all our partners in many different formats,” says Colin Carlile, Chief Executive and Director General of the European Spallation Source ESS AB.

The ESS is essentially a particle accelerator that uses neutrons to analyze different materials. Like a super microscope, ESS will use neutrons to probe various materials to enable scientific analysis.

A Peek at the Future

Possible benefits of the ESS linear accelerator include major medical advances in aging and health developments, advances in sustainable and renewable technologies, foodstuffs, IT, materials and engineering science, and archeology. ESS will also conduct other experiments in quantum physics, biomaterials, and nano-sciences.

The ESS organization currently employs over 100 scientists, engineers and administrative staff in Lund, Sweden. Cooperation with 100 other physicists around the world, together with other collaborative agreements with labs in Switzerland and Japan, aim to make the new lab operational by 2023 with the construction phase complete by 2025.

The future facility will consist of a revolving, helium-cooled tungsten target is the object that protons accelerate and crash with in the linear accelerator. This procedure results in the production of powerful neutron pulses. Cryogenic hydrogen baths that supply supermirror guides surround the tungsten. These work similarly to optical fibers, guiding the powerful neutron beams to experimental stations where studies on various materials will be conducted. In order to maximize the advantages of the long pulse, several of the instruments have undergone more than ten years of research, and some designs are unique to ESS.

“ESS will enhance our understanding of nature. The results of research from ESS will be significant for future scientific and industrial progress,” says Carlile.

Photo copyright: ESS

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