Design, fabrication and testing of a large cylindrical vacuum vessel for proton linear accelerator

The paper deals with engineering design, fabrication, copper plating and vacuum design and leak testing of the first prototype segment of Alveraz type drift tube Proton Linear Accelerator (DTL) being developed at CAT. The prototype drift tube linac segment is a long horizontal cylindrical vacuum vessel. The cylindrical cavity is internally machined and copper plated from inside and operates at 202 MHz (RF) with a vacuum better than 1 x 10-6 mbar. There are 34 openings provided for vacuum pumps, RF input and monitoring loops, piston tuners etc. and a large openings for insertions of drift tubes from top of the tank. (author)