Aluminum Gas Tungsten Arc Orbital Tube Welding

JPL has been hand-welding aluminum tubing for decades in support of flight programs and ground support equipment, including thermal plates and shrouds. This hand-welding process is time-consuming, cumbersome, difficult, and unreliable in terms of repeatability and success, which leads to leaks, rework, and cost increase. Socket-style meltdown welds are difficult to inspect via traditional nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods (radiography) since by design, there is always an inherent highstress point in the joint.