Nuclear fuel rod wiping apparatus and method

Abstract

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.