The Effect of Process Parameters on Sealing Quality for Ir-192 Radiation Source Capsule using Resistance Spot Welding

Ir-192 radiation sealed sources are widely employed to the therapeutic applications as well as the non-destructive testing. Production of Ir-192 sources requires a delicate but robust welding technique because it is employed in a high radioactive working environment. A GTA(Gas Tungsten Arc) welding technique is currently well established for this purpose. However, this welding method requires a frequent replacement of the electrode, which results in the delay of the production to take a preparatory action such as to isolate the radiation sources from the working place before getting access to the welding machine. Hence, a resistance welding technique is considered as an alternative method of the GTA welding technique. The advantages of resistance welding are high welding speed and high-rate production. Also it has very long life of electrode comparing to GTA welding. In this study, the resistance welding system and proper welding conditions were established for sealing Ir-192 source capsule. As a results of various experiments, it showed that electrode displacement can be employed as a indicator to predict welding quality. We proposed two mathematical models(linear and curvilinear) to estimate electrode displacement with process parameters such as applied force, welding current and welding time by using regression analysis method. Predicting results of both linear and curvilinear model were relatively good agreement with experiment.

Ir-192 방사선원의 밀봉 용접부 품질에 미치는 저항용접 공정변수의 영향