초록
To assess hydraulic connections between sub-components of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) diagnostic port plug, the laser welding and ablation cutting process were investigated in order to be applied the remote handling maintenance. In this study, laser ablation cutting, which vaporizes a small amount of solid material directly into gas by focusing a laser beam of high density energy, is adopted in order to overcome the limitation of the normal laser cutting technology that the head should be placed as close to the work piece as possible to blow out melt metal at a distance. Complete cutting of a work piece is obtained by repetitive multi-passes of the laser beam. The welding and cutting process were tested on the sample work pieces and finally on a prototype of a hydraulic connection module for remote handling. The results showed that this process can be a promising candidate for hydraulic connections by remote handling.