Grant: Alliance Grants

The goal of the project will be to bring novel welding technologies to the commercial scale for SMR component fabrication. The first involves optimizing the wire-arc additive manufacturing, which based on arc welding methods combined with advanced material deposition control and digitization of robotic motion to generate complex geometries completely from molten metal. This has the potential to drastically increase production rates for complex components which are normally cast or forged structures, and will reduce costs and lead times for large components. The second technology will focus on the ability to join dissimilar and crack-sensitive materials using a novel Canadian-made joining technique based on induction and friction energy. This can allow tubular components to be joined without any joint interfaces or added filler material, and has been employed in automotive applications. This proposal will evaluate this induction joining method for joining tubular components used in SMR designs which require high temperature and exotic alloys (including high temperature stainless, Zr, Nb, Ni alloys) utilized in reactor systems, fuel, and heat exchangers.