Development of additively manufactured 750 MHz RFQ

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, especially powder bed fusion, are rapidly taking their place in the technological arsenal of the accelerator community. A wide range of critical accelerator components are being manufactured additively today. However, there is still much scepticism as to whether additive manufacturing can address the stringent requirements set to complete accelerator components. Therefore, as an advanced proof-of-principle, a full-size, pure-copper Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) prototype was developed and additively manufactured in the frame of the I.FAST EU project. Gradually improved RFQ prototypes and related pure copper samples manufactured by laser powder bed fusion were submitted to a series of standard tests at CERN to demonstrate that this novel technology and suitable post-processing can deliver the required geometrical precision, surface roughness, voltage holding, vacuum tightness, and other relevant parameters. The results obtained are very promising and could be of great benefit to the linac community at large. The paper is outlining the technological developments and RFQ design improvement process along with the obtained results and future endeavours.