Today, the assembly of the structure of the first tool has progressed to 70 percent, the actuator system has been delivered for installation, and factory acceptance tests are planned to verify that the tool performs the required movements without jamming or malfunction and that the required alignment can be reached.
If all goes well, the tool will be disassembled and shipped in 54 packages to the ITER Organization before the end of June. Re-assembly activities on site and final site acceptance tests—including a load test of 310 tonnes—will be supervised by THI, with work mainly carried out by THI's local contractor CNIM (France).
Fabrication activities will begin on the second sector sub-assembly tool in Korea as soon as the first is shipped.
The Korean Domestic Agency is responsible for the design and fabrication of 43 assembly tools. For the sector sub-assembly tools, its main contractor SFA Engineering Corp has contracted with Taekyung Heavy Industries for the fabrication of all structures, sub-assembly and testing, and on-site installation. Precision hydraulic actuators are supplied by ENERPAC (Spain).
* Six degrees of freedom refers to adjustability along X, Y and Z axes (up and down, side to side, forward and backward) as well as in rotational directions relative to the axes (swivel, tilt, pivot).