Development of a SOLIDWORKS model of the MDPX magnet apparatus and vacuum chambers.

The Magnetized Dusty Plasma Experiment (MDPX) at Auburn University can perform a broad range of plasma experiments, some of which involve high magnetic fields. Chamber adapters—equipment pieces used to physically attach the vacuum chambers to MDPX’s structure—are neither standardized nor widely sold, so those used on MDPX are built in-house. Manufacture of these adapters requires highly accurate measurements of both the magnet apparatus and the vacuum chamber. The CAM software SOLIDWORKS will be used to both model the magnets and chambers and to produce the adapters needed to connect them. Using manufacturer’s drawings and models for the vacuum chambers along with measurements made by a mobile-arm coordinate measuring machine, we show the results of highly accurate models of the magnet apparatus and vacuum chambers made in the program SOLIDWORKS that will be used to aid in the manufacture of the chamber adapters.