Westinghouse Electric Corporation

The United States of America As Represented by the United States

William A Bencloski

Clark E Swenson

Frank I Bauer

Gregory L Calhoun

Arthur W Kramer

George A Blasiole

Angelo J Cassette

Arthur L Wineman

Daniel J Racki

Albert P Ciez

Frank G Gallo

John L Manno

Edward A Parlak

A rotary connector for coupling at least one stationary pipe to a rotating pipe includes a casing which is connected to a stationary inlet pipe and a stationary outlet pipe and which houses a rotary stem. The rotary stem includes an inner stem disposed within an outer stem for providing a first and second fluid flow path through the rotary stem. A spool is positioned between the rotary stem and the rotating pipe, which leads to a rotating piece of equipment, such as a combustor. The spool has an inner sleeve disposed within an outer sleeve for providing first and second fluid flow paths through the spool. The rotary connector also includes a seal for sealing an inboard end of the casing and a blind flange for sealing an outboard end of the casing. The fluid flows from the inlet pipe, through apertures in the outer stem, through an annulus between the inner and outer stems, through an annulus between the inner and outer sleeves of the spool, and into the coaxial pipe. After the fluid exits the rotary equipment, such as the combustor, the fluid flows back through the coaxial pipe, through the inner sleeve of the spool, through the inner stem of the rotary stem, through apertures in the outer stem and into the outlet pipe attached to the casing.

Rotary connector with removable spool

A remotely controlled tooling apparatus is disclosed for supporting and selectively disposing a tool with respect to a workpiece illustratively taking the form of a core barrel of a nuclear reactor. Illustratively, a core barrel is of a substantially cylindrical configuration and has a plurality of flow holes disposed therethrough. The remotely controlled apparatus comprises a tool carriage, a support table carried thereby for receiving the tool, a strongback assembly for supporting and guiding the tool carriage with respect to the core barrel, and a pair of clamps affixed to the strongback assembly for engaging the core barrel for suspending the strongback assembly upon the core barrel. The tool carriage and its support table carried thereby are selectively disposed with respect to the core barrel, whereby the tool may be engaged and disengaged with and from the core barrel. In an illustrative embodiment of this invention, the tool takes the form of an arm for releasably holding a plug to the inserted into a selected one of the existing flow holes.

Tooling apparatus for modifying nuclear reactors

A cutting apparatus includes a support table mounted for movement toward and away from a workpiece and carrying a mirror which directs a cutting laser beam onto the workpiece. A carrier is rotatably and pivotally mounted on the support table between the mirror and workpiece and supports a conduit discharging gas toward the point of impingement of the laser beam on the workpiece. Means are provided for rotating the carrier relative to the support table to place the gas discharging conduit in the proper positions for cuts made in different directions on the workpiece.

Cutting assembly

Cutting apparatus having spaced apart cutters which can be brought closer together are disposed on one end of a boom which is movable in a plane transverse to the longitudinal axis of a closely packed tube bundle to cut out short segments from the tubes starting at the periphery and working through the tube bundle by bringing the cutters closer together to provide clearance as the cutters move deeper into the tube bundle.

Apparatus for cutting through a tube bundle

Growing community of inventors

Herminie, PA, United States of America

William A Bencloski