Commissariat a L'energie Atomique

Claude Vienot

Michel Pigeon

Robert Saglio

Bernard David

A device for checking bent tubes by means of a probe, such as a pneumatically propelled eddy-current probe. The device comprises a sealing-tight enclosure adapted to communicate with the tube to be checked via a connecting tube. The introduction pressure of the probe is produced by a pneumatic circuit. The probe comprises a checking head and a cable having floaters and is wound on a coil driven by a torque motor. The introduction speed of the probe is controlled by passing it over a drive pulley, to which it is permanently applied by a strap tensioned by a spring, the pulley being mounted on the shaft of a constant-speed motor. Application to the checking of the tubes of heat exchangers, condensers and steam generators, more particularly of nuclear reacters.

Device for checking bent tubes by a probe, such as a pneumatically

An apparatus for sending a sensor, such as an eddy current sensor, into a condenser, heat exchanger or steam generator tube. The apparatus first sends the sensor, which is attached to a cable, into the tube by means of a pressurized fluid which pushes the sensor along tube interior. At the extreme of the sensor's travel into the tube, a first ferrule attached to the rear of the cable blocks a first hydraulic passage in the apparatus. By virtue of slidable control pistons in the apparatus, this blocking cuts off the pushing pressure behind the sensor and then causes wheels to frictionally engage the cable to pull the sensor back to its starting position. At this time, another ferrule, carried near the sensor end of the cable, blocks a second hydraulic passage to thereby disengage the wheels from the cable. The cycle of (1) sensor pushed into the tube (2) sensor withdrawn from the tube, is now complete.

Apparatus for displacing a sensor into a tube and automatically

The eddy-current testing device operates by translational motion of a probe within the interior of tubes to be tested. The probe comprises in succession from front to rear in its direction of normal translational motion a front guiding member, a coil-carrying member and a rear guiding member connected together by an elastic means which tends to maintain these three members in aligned relation. At least the coil-carrying member has maximum transverse dimensions which are smaller than the internal diameter of the tube. An emitter-receiver coil of the probe is connected electrically to an external supply and scanning system by means of a cable which is secured mechanically to the rear guiding member.

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Fontenay-sous-Bois, France

Claude Vienot