ITER Robotics Test Facility (IRTF) -
Small bore cutting and welding (IA3)

The ITER Robotics Test Facility is a technical collaboration between ITER Organisation and UKAEA. It is hosted at RACE, looking specifically at remote maintenance.

As part of IRTF, RACE has designed alignment, cutting and welding tools that can be used to maintain small bore cooling water pipes in ITER. The ITER tokamak has 42 port plug components and each port plug contains 3 Diagnostic Shield Module (DSM) assemblies that require cooling pipe maintenance.


In order to test that the tools can be operated remotely, RACE designed and built a representative mock-up of the DSM cooling pipe. A number of steps were undertaken using a through the wall manipulator, taking into consideration the space constraints that will exist:


  1. The alignment tool, which is made up of two parts, is manoeuvred into place and clamped onto the pipe
  2. An orbital cutting tool is installed onto the alignment tool and secured in place
  3. After cutting, the tool is removed so that the required dry maintenance can take place
  4. Once the maintenance is completed, the welding tool is connected to the alignment tool
  5. When the weld has been finished the tool is removed and the pipe is inspected
  6. If the weld is compliant the alignment tool is separated from the pipe


From the trials, RACE was able to make recommendations to ITER about how to change the component and tooling design to improve the overall task that will need to be performed at ITER.