Extruding plastic scintillator at Fermilab
An understanding of the costs involved in the production of plastic scintillators and the development of a less expensive material have become necessary with the prospects of building very large plastic scintillation detectors. Several factors contribute to the high cost of plastic scintillating sheets, but the principal reason is the labor-intensive nature of the manufacturing process. In order to significantly lower the costs, the current casting procedures had to be abandoned. Since polystyrene is widely used in the consumer industry, the logical path was to investigate the extrusion of commercial-grade polystyrene pellets with dopants to yield high quality plastic scintillator. This concept was tested and high quality extruded plastic scintillator was produced. The D0 and MINOS experiments are already using extruded scintillator strips in their detectors. An extrusion line has recently been installed at Fermilab in collaboration with NICADD (Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator and Detector Development). This new facility will serve to further develop and improve extruded plastic scintillator. This paper will discuss the characteristics of extruded plastic scintillator and its raw materials, the different manufacturing techniques and the current R&D program at Fermilab.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH03000
- OSTI ID:
- 816719
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-Conf-03/318-E; TRN: US0305117
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: IEEE 2003 NSS, Portland, OR (US), 10/19/2003--10/25/2003; Other Information: PBD: 31 Oct 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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