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SMALL AND MEDIUM-
SIZED ENTERPRISES
Special welding head
in miniature format
High-precision orbital welds of the cooling water pipes near the wall of the Wendelstein 7-X
fusion device have been performed under extremely tight space conditions in the plasma
vessel. In 2019, the special machine builder Encoma developed a mini orbital welding
head for this purpose with a particularly thin rotor and a clamping system that can be opened to
the side with a space-saving compact design. This new design allows the welding of large pipe
diameters – with respect to the size of the welding head – while at the same time it minimizes the
radial and axial space required around the weld seams.
IPP funded the development
of this
technology, which is
now ready for application
here and elsewhere.
It has already
been used for welds
on divertor piping
systems of the ITER
project and will soon
be used at the GSI
Helmholtz Centre for
Heavy Ion Research in
Darmstadt. According
to the company, a very
similar design of this
concept is now also
being used successfully
for complex piping
on ultra-pure gas
supplies for production
plants in the semiconductor
industry.
CAD and photo: Encoma GmbH
Encoma GmbH, Eigeltingen, Germany Small but mighty
Orbital welding head for confined spaces