Change of manufacturing technique for the W7–X nonplanar coil cases

The geometry of the coil cases of the nonplanar coil system for the Wendelstein 7-X (W7–X) experiment (Sapper, The superconducting magnet system for the W7–X stellarator. Proceedings 12th Topical Meeting on the Fusion Technology) was changed to a more complex shape compared to the DEMO Coil case (Kronhardt et al., 1998. Proceedings of the 20th SOFT (1998) 731–734). Therefore the manufacturing technique developed for the DEMO Coil case cannot be used for the series production of 50 coils. For the final design of the coil cases, investigations were performed to find a technique suitable for manufacturing the cases within the required geometrical tolerances and mechanical characteristics. In order to qualify the manufacturing technique a complete half case was cast and machined afterwards. The casting procedure was optimised with respect to the geometrical accuracy and the mechanical characteristics at 4.2 K. Measurements of the yield strength, the tensile strength, the elongation, and the Youngʹs modulus were performed at room- and cryo-temperature (4 and 7 K). The influence of the heat treatment, the annealing temperature and the size of the casting on the mechanical values is shown. The requirements on the stainless steel are a yield strength of 800 MPa at 4 K and an elongation at fracture of >25%. The magnetic permeability has to be <1.01. Furthermore the welding properties of the case material were investigated. The development program showed that casting of complete case half shells is a feasible manufacturing technique for the series production of the Wendelstein 7-X nonplanar coil cases.