Abstract
With European Laser Facilities such as the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) and the Helmholtz International Beamline for Extreme Fields (HIBEF) scheduled to come online within the next couple of years, General Atomics, as a major supplier of targets and target components for the High Energy Density Physics community in the United States, is gearing up to meet their demand for large numbers of low cost targets. Using the production of a subassembly for the National Ignition Facility’s fusion targets as an example, we demonstrate that through automation of assembly tasks, the design of targets and their experimental setup can be fairly complex while keeping the assembly time and cost as a minimum. A six-axis Mitsubishi robot is used in combination with vision feedback and a force–torque sensor to assemble target subassemblies of different scales and designs with minimal change of tooling, allowing for design flexibility and short assembly setup times. Implementing automated measurement routines on a Nikon NEXIV microscope further reduces the effort required for target metrology, while electronic data collection and transfer complete a streamlined target production operation that can be adapted to a large variety of target designs.
Highlights
Shot rates of 0.1–10 Hz on some of the new laser facilities in Europe [e.g., the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) and the Helmholtz International Beamline for Extreme Fields (HIBEF)] will require target production in quantities from dozens to thousands per campaign
The robotic HR assembly process reduces the overall cost of National Ignition Facility (NIF) target production and provides an example of the target complexity that can be accommodated while still employing automation
The presentation of the HR insertion process and subsequent metrology demonstrates the feasibility of robotic assembly and qualification measurements of high energy density (HED) Physics target subassemblies
Summary
Shot rates of 0.1–10 Hz on some of the new laser facilities in Europe [e.g., the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) and the Helmholtz International Beamline for Extreme Fields (HIBEF)] will require target production in quantities from dozens to thousands per campaign. These targets need to be precision assembled and subsequently measured. Both operations are done under a microscope by hand. Of components that vary in design are more challenging to automate; the versatility in target design is important to supply the Physics community with enough flexibility in their quest to achieve fusion ignition at the NIF. The impact of automation on the field of target fabrication especially in the context of target design for large quantities as well as restrictions and requirements based on the lessons learned from the current system
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