SRF Cavity Stiffening by Thermal Spraying

In this paper, we report on the advances in the new stiffening method using a thermally sprayed copper layer onto bulk niobium cavities. This technique could be used either for replacing the actual EB welded stiffening rings in TESLA cavities, or to fabricate Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) proton cavities at low β with reduced niobium thickness. The latest measurements performed on samples to characterise the mechanical and thermal properties of the copper coating are presented and the plasma spraying method used is detailed.