Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Doryokuro Kakunenryo Kaihatsu Jigyodan

Shinichi Usui

Hiroshi Igarashi

Hiroaki Kobayashi

Hirotaka Uehara

Shunji Yoshizawa

Junichi Adachi

A machine for inspecting the surface conditions of structural members within a furnace, particularly within a furnace operating at a high temperature or with a highly radioactive environment, such as a melting furnace for processing radioactive wastes. The machine comprises a laser-transmission optical fiber incorporated with a laser projector at one end thereof inserted into the furnace and being connected to a laser beam source outside the furnace; a fiberscope incorporated with the objective portion at one end thereof inserted into the furnace and being connected to an image sensor located outside the furnace; means for calculating the distance to a structural wall surface on which the laser beam from a tip portion of the inspection machine has fallen, by subjecting an image from the image sensor to image processing; a double-walled tube of a structure such that the laser-transmission optical fiber is incorporated through an inner tube thereof, and a coolant introduced into a passageway within the inner tube returns in the vicinity of the laser projector at the tip portion; and a double-walled tube of a structure such that the fiberscope is incorporated through an inner tube thereof, and a coolant introduced into a passageway within the inner tube returns in the vicinity of the objective portion at the tip portion.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo-To, Japan

Shinichi Usui