FABRICATION OF HEXAGONAL APM PROCESS TUBES FOR ORGANIC REACTOR APPLICATION

Technical Report · Fri Jan 11 04:00:00 EST 1963

OSTI ID:4005628

Supan, E C

The feasibility of extruding hexagonal shaped APM alloy process tubes in minimum lengths of 111 inches was demonstrated. These tubes had an internal distance across parallel flats of 4.300 inches and a 0.162 inch wall. The design was selected for fabrication of a test loop fuel element for the EOCR. A total of ten process tubes were extruded in APM alloys XAP001 and SAP 930. Severe surface galling problems were encountered in the extrusion process. This was nearly eliminated by increasing the irternal corner radii of the tube and developing an improved technique for extrusion lubrication. Dimensional inspection of the process tubes revealed that the specified tolerances were not met. This is partly attributed to misalignment of tooling during extrusion. Improved dimensions could be expected in the extrusion of production quantities of process tubes, but it is unlikely that they would be within the small tolerances specified here. It is recommended that dimensional tolerances be increased for any future hexagonal process tube extrusions. It is also recommended that these tubes be further evaluated by mechanical testing and metallographic examination. (auth)

• Research Organization: Atomics International. Div. of North American Aviation, Inc., Canoga Park, Calif.
• DOE Contract Number: AT(11-1)-GEN-8
• NSA Number: NSA-18-021569
• OSTI ID: 4005628
• Report Number(s): NAA-SR-Memo-8121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ALLOYS
ALUMINUM
CONFIGURATION
COOLANT LOOPS
DEFORMATION
EOCR
EXTRUSION
FABRICATION
FUEL ELEMENTS
LUBRICATION
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
METALLOGRAPHY
ORGANIC COOLANT
ORGANIC MODERATOR
PLANNING
REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
REACTORS
SAP
SINTERED MATERIALS
SURFACES
TESTING
THICKNESS
TUBES