Kraftwerk Union Aktiengesellschaft

Helmut Bezold

Josef Steven

A method for deep-drawing sheet metal in a drawing apparatus having a drawing ring body, a pressure body, and a drawing plunger, which includes pushing a metal sheet having a deep-drawing region against the drawing ring body with the pressure body surrounding the deep-drawing region, pushing the drawing plunger against the deep drawing region, and heating the deep drawing region for deep-drawing, and an apparatus for carrying out the method.

Method for deep-drawing sheet metal and an apparatus for carrying out

Device for measuring the spring-force of resilient spacer projections set into spacer grids of nuclear reactor fuel assemblies to push fuel rods surrounded by spacer meshes against at least two oppositely disposed rigid spacer projections, including a force measuring plug having a diameter equal to the diameter of a fuel rod to be fixed in the spacer grid, and a flexible beam integral with the force measuring plug, the flexible beam having a free end in contact with a first resilient spacer projection to be measured, and another end firmly connected to the force measuring plug and having at least one wire strain gage disposed thereon.

Spring-force measuring device

Method of automatically filling jacket tubes for fuel rods of nuclear reactors with nuclear fuel pellets in combination with subsequent closure of the jacket tubes by automated welding of end caps thereon, which includes introducing the nuclear fuel pellets row-wise into a receiving tube of a collecting magazine therefor, passing the magazine containing the nuclear fuel pellets through a drying furnace to remove traces of moisture therefrom, subsequently delivering the magazine containing the moistureless nuclear fuel pellets to a filling station to which, respectively, an empty jacket tube has been fed from a tube magazine, weighing the empty jacket tube, then filling the empty jacket tube with fuel pellets in a column from the receiving tubes of the collecting magazine by mechanically displaced pushrods until a given extent of fullness thereof depending upon the length and weight of the pellet column has been attained, delivering the filled jacket tube to a further processing station for introducing insulating tablets, support sleeves and springs thereto and, after final checking, transferring the jacket sleeve to welding apparatus for welding end caps thereon.

Method of automatically filling nuclear fuel rod jacket tubes

A nuclear fuel rod assembly support structure has top and bottom end pieces, and a plurality of fuel rod spacer grids and control-rod guide tubes having top and bottom ends respectively fastened to the top and bottom end pieces to hold these pieces interspaced, the guide tubes being inserted slidably through the openings in the spacer grids and the latter being positioned between the end pieces of the support structure. It is necessary to fix the spacer grids to the guide tubes to maintain the spacer grids at properly interspaced positions and to provide a support structure that is as rigid as possible. For reasons of nuclear physics, the guide tubes and spacer grids are made of different metals or alloys which are difficult to fix together by the use of solidified molten metal using presently known welding and soldering techniques. To overcome this problem, sleeves are used through which the guide tubes are inserted with the spacer grids positioned between these sleeves and with the sleeves axially engaging th spacer grids, the sleeves being fixed to the guide tubes by the solidified molten metal. This overcomes the problem because the sleeves and the guide tubes may be made of the same metals or alloys which can be welded or soldered together easily.

Nuclear fuel-rod assembly support structure

Fuel element skeleton has a play-free form-locking connection between groups of structural parts thereof respectively formed of materials of varying thermal expansion, the connection having means secured to a first group of the structural parts and having respective contact surfaces on diametrically opposite sides of the first group of structural parts, the contact surfaces being disposed in a common plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the means, and the contact surfaces facing in mutually opposite axial directions of the first group of the structural parts, and means provided on a second group of the structural parts for defining respective abutment surfaces disposed in a common plane and mutually spaced from one another, the abutment surfaces facing in mutually opposite directions, the first and the second groups of the structural parts being disposed relative to one another in a position wherein the contact surfaces of the first group of the structural parts are in engagement with the respective abutment surfaces of the second group of the structural parts and wherein the common plane in which the contact surfaces are disposed is coincident with the common plane in which the abutment surfaces are disposed.

Fuel element skeleton

Method of joining fuel rod end caps and cladding tubes by resistance pressure welding within a welding chamber. A welding device is brought into engagement with an end portion of a rigidly mounted cladding tube. An opening chuck as well as a divided welding electrode, both of which are mounted at one side of the welding chamber, are shifted along a predetermined length of the cladding tube end portion. The chuck and the divided welding electrode are brought into contact with the cladding tube end portion. Another welding electrode carrying and end cap is thrust into the welding chamber from the other side thereof so that the end cap is fed to the open end of the cladding tube end portion. The welding chamber is sealed by sealing members sealingly engaging the cladding tube end portion and the other welding electrode and then the interior of the welding chamber is evacuated and filled with protective gas. The end cap is pressed onto the open end of the cladding tube end portion. A welding current is passed through the welding electrodes so as to weld the end cap to the end of the cladding tube end portion.

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Erlangen, Germany

Helmut Bezold