Conduit distortion of the ITER CS conductor due to bending

In the high quality windings that are required in the ITER system, distortion of the cable in conduit conductors due to the winding process must be addressed and techniques developed to control and minimize these effects. To this end, a series of interviews were held with experts in the field of bending including manufacturers of bending tooling and equipment. Subsequently a test program was initiated to validate the ideas generated during the interview process by bending lengths of the 52.6 mm square CS empty conduit using the roll forming and compression bending approaches. Measurements of the distortion were made and both tooling and technique modifications were made. In the paper a summary of the techniques reviewed and the results of the experimental program are described.<>