Development of Gap-filling Impregnation Method of ITER TF Coils

The ITER Toroidal Field (TF) coil is composed of a Winding Pack (WP) and a TF coil case (TFCC). In the manufacturing of a TF coil, the gap between the WP and the TFCC is filled with radiation resistant Triglycidyl-p-aminophenol (TGPAP) resin. Vacuum Pressure Impregnation (VPI) is adopted. The selected resin system displayed two potential problems: high viscosity and cracking after cure. A series of production optimizations have been performed to develop techniques to apply the selected resin for the TF coil production: crack countermeasure, narrow gap injection, and pressure control. For crack countermeasure, the addition of fiberglass tape or sheet layer was found to be effective in preventing fragmentation of cracked resin. Since the cracked resin would not harm the TF coil quality as long as it stays in the original position, addition of confining fiberglass layers solves the problem. In narrow gap qualification tests, resin injection into a 2 mm wide space was observed with proper selection of fiberglass layer addition conditions. The pressure qualification test showed that resin cured without additional pressurization can satisfy the compression strength requirements. From those results, techniques for the TF coil production have been developed, and with the implementation of those techniques the gap-filling of the first TF coil in Japan was successfully completed in 2019. Since then, two more TF coils have completed the gap-filling process with some improvements.