Design of Iodine-131 production device for operation using manipulators in a hot cell

Iodine-131 (I-131) is a radioisotope that is used as a base for making radiopharmaceuticals. I-131 is produced inside the hot cell using two manipulators instead of a human hand to avoid radiation exposure to the operator. The current I-131 production process has a high dependency because it is only carried out by operators who are proficient in operating manipulators to avoid mistakes that can lead to failure of the production process. Therefore, it is necessary to design a device to facilitate the production process that can be operated by all operators, so as to reduce dependence on skilled operators. The design stage starts from observing the current production process to find out more about the problem, making a concept design to determine the working principle and layout of the parts, making 3D designs to make concept designs into more detail using Solidwork software, and technical analysis to calculate the motor power required. The design consists of 4 modules, each consisting of a body module, a stepper motor as a driver, and a power thread using the single start acme type. Based on the calculation results, the smallest motor torque is found on the M7 motor of 0.022 Nm, the largest torque is on the M5 of 0.082 Nm so that the motor is chosen to use a Nema 17 bipolar with a torque of 0.3601 Nm. A design for the I-131 production equipment has been created that is compliant with the SOP and easy to operate by all operators so as to reduce dependence on skilled operators.