Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Stuart L Rieben

Mark E Wylie

Ralph W Kugler

Joseph J Scherpenberg

John J Wilhelm

Dale Thomas Wiersema

James L Fogg

Dale O Perschka

Harvey D Kucherer

Tube wiping apparatus includes upper and lower reversely canted pinch rollers spaced along respective upper and lower sides of a first path along which the tube is moved and rotated by pairs of the upper and lower pinch rollers located at infeed and exit ends of the first path. The wiping apparatus also includes a toweling drive roll having an exterior surface engaging a toweling roll and carrying a continuous web of toweling along a second path, and a toweling pinch roll having an exterior surface pinching the toweling web between it and the drive roll for causing movement of the toweling web along the second path, across the first path and into contact with the tube so as to perform wiping of the exterior surface of the tube by the toweling. The drive roll with a yieldably resilient outer annular layer is disposed below a pair of the upper pinch rollers for capturing the tube therebetween as the tube is moved along the first path such that the roll outer layer and the toweling thereon are indented by contact with the tube causing the toweling to wrap partially around the tube exterior surface as wiping thereof occurs. A spray chamber is operable for applying a liquid spray to the tube to permit a wet wiping of the tube exterior surface by the toweling.

Nuclear fuel rod wiping apparatus and method

A pellet collating system includes a tray positioning station located adjacent a pellet collating line with a tray transfer robot located therebetween. The tray positioning station has mobile carts lodged thereat, some supporting pellet supply trays and others supporting pellet storage trays. Pellets on one supply tray and later placed on one storage tray are of the same enrichment. Pellet enrichments on some trays are different from on others. The collating line includes pellet input, work and output stations arranged in tandem. The robot is operable to transfer supply and storage trays one at a time to and from the positioning station and the respective input and output stations. An input sweep head is operable for sweeping pellets onto the work station from a supply tray on the input station. A gripping and measuring head is operable for measuring a desired length of pellets on the work station and then separating the measured desired length of pellets from the remaining pellets, if any. An output sweep head is operable for sweeping the measured lengths of pellets from the work station onto a storage tray at the output station. The output sweep head is also operable for sweeping the remaining pellets, if any, from the work station back onto the one supply tray disposed at the input station.

Nuclear fuel pellet collating system and method

Nuclear fuel pellet collating system

An improved apparatus for applying an end plug to an end of a fuel rod tube includes a housing having spaced inlet and outlet ends adapted to receive the end plug and tube end, respectively, one of three alternative embodiments of a guide arrangement which defines an internal guide channel aligned in tandem with the inlet and outlet ends of the housing along a common axis, and cylindrical ram movable along the axis for engaging and moving the end plug from the inlet end through the guide channel to the outlet end where the plug is applied to the tube end. The guide arrangement, whether is takes the form of a deformable bushing, a series of radially-mounted inwardly-biased runners or a series of parallel-mounted inwardly-biased rolls, defines the guide channel with a cross-sectional size smaller than that of the end plug and when contacted by the moving plug yieldably expands such that the guide channel conforms to the external surface of the end plug and thereby establishes and maintains guiding contact therewith as the end plug is moved through the guide channel.

Apparatus for applying an end plug to an end of a fuel rod tube

An improved apparatus for applying an end plug to an end of a fuel rod tube includes a housing having spaced inlet and outlet ends adapted to receive the end plug and tube end, respectively, one of three alternative embodiments of a guide arrangement which defines an internal guide channel aligned in tandem with the inlet and outlet ends of the housing along a common axis, and a cylindrical ram movable along the axis for engaging and moving the end plug from the inlet end through the guide channel to the outlet end where the plug is applied to the tube end. The guide arrangement, whether it takes the form of a deformable bushing, a series of radially-mounted inwardly-biased runners or a series of parallel-mounted inwardly-biased rolls, defines the guide channel with a cross-sectional size smaller than that of the end plug and when contacted by the moving plug yieldably expands such that the guide channel conforms to the external surface of the end plug and thereby establishes and maintains guiding contact therewith as the end plug is moved through the guide channel.

An improved apparatus for applying an end plug to an end of a fuel rod tube includes a housing having spaced inlet and outlet ends adapted to receive the end plug and tube end, respectively, one of three alternative embodiments of a guide arrangement which defines an internal guide channel aligned in tandem with the inlet and outlet ends of the housing along a common axis, and a cylindrical ram movable along the axis for engaging and moving the end plug from the inlet end through the guide channel to the outlet end where the plug is applied to the tube end. The guide arrangement, whether it takes the form of a deformable bushing, a series of radially-mounted inwardly-biased runners or a series of parallel-mounted inwardly-biased rolls, defines the guide channel with a cross-sectional size smaller than that of the end plug and when contacted by the moving plug yieldably expands such that the guide channel conforms to the external surface of the end plug and thereby establishes and maintains guiding cntact therewith as the end plug is moved through the guide channel.

An apparatus for applying an end plug to a nuclear fuel rod tube end includes a stationary base, a support carriage and a track assembly mounting the support carriage on the base for reciprocal movement relative to the base. The carriage is movable along a generally linear path between extreme positions located remote from and adjacent to the stationarily-positioned tube end to which the end plug is to be applied. The apparatus also includes a plugger guide supported on the carriage for movement therewith. The plugger guide has an elongated central bore with one end for receiving the end plug and an opposite end for receiving the tube end. An end plug supply magazine, mounted on the carriage and which in turn mounts the plugger guide, delivers the end plug into alignment with the one end of the plugger guide's central bore. An actuator stationarily disposed on the base adjacent to the carriage includes a drive member movable between retracted and extended positions and coupled to the carriage via a drive force aligning and transmitting assembly. The drive force transmitting assembly includes a plunger element aligned with the central bore of the plugger guide for transferring the end plug to the one end of the bore of the guide means and for reciprocally moving the carriage between its remote and adjacent positions as the drive member is moved between its respective retracted and extended positions to apply the end plug to the tube end.

Apparatus and method for applying an end plug to a fuel rod tube end

Welding apparatus is disclosed for collecting and disposing of the extraneous work piece particles thrown off during the machining and, in particular, the welding of the workpiece. The welding apparatus comprises a welding chamber for receiving the work piece and for establishing a welding environment about the work piece. The welding chamber has an opening and an input port for introducing a non-reactive gas into the welding chamber to establish the welding environment within the welding chamber. An output port is associated with its welding chamber for permitting the escape of the non-reactive gas therefrom. A manifold is disposed about the output port for receiving and collecting the non-reactive gas and the work piece particles suspended therein. A sealing assembly is associated with the opening for operating in a first mode for sealing the opening to prevent escape of the non-reactive gas except through the output port and the manifold means, and in a second mode to permit escape of the non-reactive gas through the opening.

Particulate collection system for laser welding apparatus

Method and apparatus for winding an electrical conductor about the leg of a magnetic core. A single set of drive rolls and a single set of ironing rolls cooperatively tightly wrap the conductor about the leg of the magnetic core.

Coil winding methods and apparatus

An apparatus for measuring mechanical strain in a bolt, stud or other tensile member includes a measuring rod which is held in a fixed position with respect to a selected point in an axial bore in the tensile member being measured. A bolt extension tube extends into the axial bore to provide a wrench support function and is held in a fixed position with respect to a second point on the tensile member. Straining the tensile member results in a relative displacement between the rod and the tube which is proportional to tensile member elongation. Means are provided for setting a preselected strain, measuring strain, displaying strain and providing a control signal to control straining of the tensile member.

Bolt stretch measurement device

The tube plug comprises a shell having a tapered inner surface against which an externally tapered expander member moves by application of a pulling force. The motion of the expander member relative to the shell causes the shell to expand into contact with a heat exchange tube thereby plugging the tube. The expander member is formed from a hardened metal with tangentially blended leading radius and a self-locking trailing edge which provides for ease in expanding the shell while preventing inadvertent unlocking of the plug. The shell has a substantially uniform wall thickness throughout the portion of the shell which experiences expansion so that the force necessary to perform the expanding process does not increase beyond the strength limitations of the installation equipment as the expander member is moved through the shell. The shell also has a plurality of lands on the outside surface thereof whose depth increases from closed end to open end of the shell so that a uniform wall thickness can be maintained in that region while allowing the lands to contact the inner surface of the heat exchange tube.

Tube plug

The plug installation apparatus comprises a mechanism for moving an internally captured expander member relative to the shell wherein it is captured thereby expanding the plug into contact with the internal surface of a tube within which the plug is disposed. The apparatus further comprises a sensor mechanism for determining that the plug has been properly inserted in the tube prior to expanding the plug for preventing improper expansion of the plug. The apparatus also comprises force measuring devices for determining and verifying that the proper amount of force has been applied to the expander member.

Plug installation apparatus

A multi-function end effector for performing operations on equipment located in areas where human access is limited comprises a vertical support capable of being supported in the equipment on which the operations are to be performed, such as a nuclear steam generator, along with a table attached to the vertical support. The table is capable of positioning tools in relation to the equipment and is capable of driving the tools. The table comprises a centering device for positioning the tools in proper relation to the equipment.

Growing community of inventors

Mt. Lebanon, PA, United States of America

Stuart L Rieben