On April 14, 2008, a team of BC scientists and engineers drawn from the TRIUMF laboratory and PAVAC Industries, Inc., announced that they had entered into an elite worldwide league of groups that are able to manufacture ultra-sophisticated superconducting accelerator technology. The BC team was able to fabricate, assemble, and test a high-tech device known as a “superconducting radio-frequency cavity” or SRF cavity. These superconducting devices are assembled into modules to form next-generation accelerators with applications in health care, environmental mitigation and remediation, advanced materials science, and high-energy physics. This success is a first for Canada and registers the country as one of only six countries in the world with this coveted industrial capability.
The TRIUMF team had sought out PAVAC Industries, Inc., in Richmond, BC for their expertise in the tricky step of careful welding in a vacuum. TRIUMF scientists had developed the first stage of the project using cavities fabricated in Italy. During the second stage of the project, the TRIUMF/PAVAC partnership was formed with the goal of developing a “Made-in-Canada” solution. The newly acquired capability will enable PAVAC to bid for other projects at major laboratories and institutions around the world.