Krabo at CERN

April 9, 2024

KRABO® technology is installed on one structure in the most prestigious research laboratory in the world: the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). The CERN hosts LHC as CERN flagship on its main site in Geneva, Switzerland. One of the running projects is the construction of the ProtoDUNE, the DUNE Far Detector prototype at the CERN Neutrino Platform. It consists of a metallic structure the size of a three-story house and the shape of a gigantic cube. The structure acts as a cryostat and will be filled with 800 tons of liquid argon to keep it at a temperature of -184°C. The detector records particles from cosmic rays and beams created at CERN’s accelerator. During the argon filling, this structure will be subjected to fluctuation due to continuous incremental loading.

Krabo is the perfect product in situations where load variations are expected.

Starting from the conventional bolt included in the original design of the structure, the Krabo team produced and calibrated KRABO® IoT networking bolts. This approach is called retrofitting: the conventional bolts are replaced with IoT ones to increase safety in the structure. The bolts in this project are size M36X120, structural EN 14399-3, class 10.9 HR.

The Krabo team, with the help of the CERN team, replaces conventional bolts with KRABO® bolts in some selected joints of the structure which are considered to be of interest by the CERN engineering team. The bolts send wireless data to a gateway installed near the structure. The gateway stores all the data on the KRABO® cloud via the network. The bolts are powered by a coin cell battery which guarantees them years of life.

Both the CERN team and Krabo team now are ready to monitor the load changes on the structure in real-time, every day. Opening the browser and entering the KRABO® cloud, the tension status of all the bolts installed on the structure is visible. Warnings and alarms will be received in the case of anomalous load.