Quokka and Platypus
Platypus (reflectometer)
Installation and commissioning of Platypus is going at breakneck speed. The Gumtree control software has been installed on the instrument and is now being used to drive our slit system motors around. We are currently testing the accuracy and reproducibility of these motorised axes.In addition, a large amount of bunker and detector shielding has been fabricated and is in the process of installation.
Quokka
(small-angle neutron scattering)Quokka's instrument guides were installed at the beginning of this year and the concrete tunnel shield over this collimation section was put in place late in February. The last major pieces of the instrument, the concrete shielding walls for the sample area and the connection of the tunnel to the velocity selector bunker have now begun to arrive - these will be installed over the next few weeks. Work on detector tank alignment is now complete, but continues on the detector itself and motor cabling for the instrument. Meanwhile, our multi-position, hermetically sealed, air-liquid trough has been manufactured (based on design by ISIS, the neutron spallation source in the UK), and is currently being anodised to a lovely cobalt blue colour.
