Adaptive Welding for Power Plant Piping and Pressure Vessels (AW-PPV)

Current technologies for automatic orbital welding are either semi-automatic, requiring a human worker to closely monitor and adjust the welding process as it goes, or open loop and therefore ill equipped to handle in-process changes that are necessary for correcting defects and unexpected path deviations.

Limited availability of qualified welders for nuclear applications is driving the need for fully automated welding machines that can perform welds with the same quality and flexibility as humans, thus reducing the need for qualified human welders and improving process consistency.

Industry Sponsor: ORNL MDF, EPRI, ITW Hobart

Faculty Mentor: Bill Hamel and Suresh Babu

Graduate Student: Sam Robertson

Industry Contact: Bill Peter, ORNL MDF; David Gandy, Greg Frederick, Jon Tatman, EPRI; Joe Bundy, Dustin Wagner, ITW Hobart