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. 30, 1993
Filed:
Sep. 25, 1992
William J Bryan, Granby, CT (US);
Combustion Engineering, Inc., Windsor, CT (US);
Abstract
A method for enhancing the wear resistance of a tubular component (62) of a nuclear fuel assembly, including the first steps of supporting the component in an implantation chamber (16), removing ambient air from the chamber such as by a pump (56) and generating a plasma plume (28) of positively charged metal source material by establishing an electrical discharge arc which travels from a cathode (18) of said source material to an anode (24) of a different material. At least a portion of the plasma plume is passed through an electromagnetic duct (14) which filters constituents other than free, high energy source material ions out of the plume. The high energy source material positive ions are directed through the chamber onto the negatively charged component. The chamber can be backfilled with a reactive gas such as nitrogen which forms an ionic compound with the source material ions such as Zr or Ti, and the ionic compound such as ZrN or TiN implants in the component.