Energospetsmontazh (a Rosatom enterprise specializing in mechanical installation works for NPPs) will shortly conduct automated argon-arc welding of the main circulation line with the diameter of 990 mm and WT of 70 mm. The technology that has no analog in the world was already attested. The process of welding is the following: remotely controlled machinery moves along the perimeter of the junction point, welding the details according to preset parameters. The total amount of junction points is 28.

Quality is Guaranteed
The know-how and the equipment for it appeared in 2011, when 5 welding sets were produced. The advantage of the new technology is undoubtful. Automated welding practically excludes the human factor and guarantees continuous high quality welding. Tests show that the quality of the automated welding is several times higher than that of the manual arc, used at all NPPs these days.

Human Factor
To conduct manual arc welding for the period of 4-5 months about 30 specialists are needed, the number not that easy to obtain. While automated welding doesn’t imply such a problem. The requirements for an automated welding operator are not that high, since all the specialist has to do is set parameters and watch the process on the screen.

Time Saving
Time is another important issue. A 127 days’ record of manual welding was recently set at the Kalinin NPP, while automated process suggests that an analogous operation will be completed almost two times faster at the Novovoronezh-2 NPP.