The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 23, 1993
Filed:
Jun. 29, 1992
Patrick A Perrotti, Newington, CT (US);
Combustion Engineering, Inc., Windsor, CT (US);
Abstract
A nuclear fuel assembly grid (1) has a plurality of flat strips (10,12) that are orthogonally interlaced along vertical slots (38,60) through their upper or lower edges and welded together to form an egg crate-like array of four-walled cells (14) for receiving respective fuel rods (16), each cell including springs (20,30) and arches (32,34) projecting from the walls for contacting and supporting a respective fuel rod in the interior of the cell. At least some of the cells having flow deflection vanes (36,56) projecting integrally from a cell wall into the interior of the cell without contacting the fuel rod. Preferably, the vane is bent along a bend line (52) that is parallel to the upper edge (24) of the strip, into the interior of the cell, thereby forming an angle of between about 15 degrees and 30 degrees relative to the plane defined by the body, or plate portion of the strip.