The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Center for Neutron Research is expanding the number of beamlines for research purposes from seven to 11 beams. The metrology tasks required to perform the installation of the new beamlines include the design and installation of a high-accuracy control network throughout the area affected by the new beamlines, the measurement and fiducialization of 145 new glass guide segments, the alignment of each glass guide segment in its vacuum vessel, and the positioning of the all the vacuum vessels within three distinct areas of the facility.

For the NIST engineers, the project's challenges included a restrictive schedule and severe visibility restrictions within the building. This required careful planning to achieve the required accuracy. This article describes the challenges as well as the methods used by the metrology team to overcome them. The team's efforts provided a highly efficient method of performing the alignment and allowed nonmetrologists to perform the measurement and alignment tasks with minimal assistance.

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