Fig. 2-20 3-D view of ITER and a vehicle type manipulator installed in the vacuum vessel There is a circular rail in the center, a vehicle, a manipulator on the vehicle, and inserting structures through a port. A part of the circular arc is inserted along a straight line and then auto-latched and automatically guided along the circumference line. The rail withstands the weight, because the rail has 4 points fixed supports.

Fig. 2-21 The real size vehicle and the manipulator including the telescopic arm in operation The component (the divertor plate) is suspended by the end effecter mounted at the top of the arm. Transportation performance: 1.2 tons Accuracy: less than 1 mm Transportation speed: ~3 m/minute

Remote handling technology is necessary for the maintenance of activated components inside the vacuum vessel of a fusion experimental reactor. The blanket modules which are components inside the vacuum vessel are 2 m in height, 4 tons in weight and the total number of them is 720. So far, a multi-joint boom is used for repair exchange assembling of the large-size, heavy components. However, a maximum weight of handling is limited less than 1 ton due to bending and/or oscillation of the multi-joint boom. Therefore we have designed a vehicle type manipulator. In this method a guiding rail is installed at first, a vehicle moves on the rail and gets access near to the components to be handled and then heavy weight jobs are done by a short telescopic arm of the manipulator (Fig. 2-20). Real size operational tests have been made based on small scale tests (Fig. 2-21). Many new ideas have emerged on a mechanism of tight fitting between a rail and a vehicle, an auto-latch mechanism between rails, and computer control techniques. As a result we have the prospect of handling 5 tons weight with 1 ~ 2 mm accuracy. This satisfies ITER requirements. Such technology may have many applications to the auto-assembling of large complex structures.

Reference E. Tada et al., Remote Handling Technology for Fusion Experimental Reactor, Fusion Eng. Des., 29, 249 (1995).

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