Machinery for the heat treatment of materials

Tender description

The authority has a requirement for the design of post weld heat treatment tooling. As part of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, RACE (Remote applications in challenging environments) is investigating new techniques for carrying out remote maintenance operations where human access is not possible. One such application will be powerplants based on fusion reactors, such as DEMO, a demonstration reactor in the early stages of development (fundamental research and concept selection) by the EUROfusion consortium. One topic being studied in the remote maintenance work package is how to cut and weld the many hundreds of service connections that will be replaced during maintenance cycles. So far, RACE has created novel welding tools that operate inside the service pipework and use laser processing. DEMO requires many pipes and has limited space to package them, so it is highly desirable to achieve all operations from inside the pipe. As a result of the materials used (P91 steel) and the rapid heating cycle from the welding laser, Post weld heat treatment (PWHT) will be required to restore the material properties of the Heat affected zone (HAZ). RACE wishes to engage industry expertise to define a concept design of an in-bore PWHT tool and a design for a simple bench test to allow the feasibility to be established. The purpose of this notice is to identify the expected budget for the design work and gain feedback on the proposed specification for the design work. The responses to this notice and any subsequent conversations with suppliers will inform a future invitation to tender. The proposed specification and a list of questions are provided to promote discussion. The link below will take you to a registration system where you will be requested to enter your contact details. Once you have submitted these you will receive an email with a direct link to the documents identified above. http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/TenderDocs.aspx?DocName=pwhttool.zip Please ignore the wording in the registration system email that implies that this is an invitation to tender. A response to the market sounding questions by 31.8.2019 would be appreciated.