Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, is the United States’ premier high-energy particle accelerator facility. Fermilab collaborates with scientists from around the world to perform pioneering research and operate particle accelerators, in addition to experimenting with and developing technologies for science in support of U.S. industry.

In 2014, Fermilab contracted Exact Metrology to work on a project known by its location as “Main Injector Ring Section MI-10.” Horst Friedsam, head of the Alignment and Metrology Department at Fermilab, led the week-long project with Exact Metrology, which involved 3D mapping of existing equipment to yield data to support the placement and installation of an additional beam transport line.

Exact Metrology performed the scanning in section 10 of the main injector accelerator, which is situated in a tunnel about 10 m below ground, with a circumference of approximately two miles. The main injector accelerates a proton particle beam, which arrives from the 8 Giga-electron-Volts (GeV) booster, to 120 GeV and subsequently blasts it into a stationary target to generate the world’s highest intensity neutrino beams.

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