Results of R&D on ITER-TF Winding Critical Issues

New technical issues are initiated in the ITER toroidal field (TF) coil manufacturing because of the scale-up by about 3 times from the TF model coil. The major issues are feasibilities of high accuracy, automatic winding, precise prediction of conductor elongation after heat treatment to insert the conductor in narrow groove of a radial plate, and development of insulation system, which can sustain irradiation of a neutron fluence of 1022 n/m and, in addition, be impregnated in a suitable duration. One of major parts of automatic winding machine, a bending roller head, was developed and trial winding using short sample conductor was successfully carried out. The elongations of the TF conductor after the heat treatment is evaluated to be in plusmn0.03% In addition, results of impregnation test using short samples indicate that it will take about 60 h to impregnate TF coil double-pancake by the method developed in the model coil project. New impregnation technique is under development to shorten the impregnation period.