Patent abstracts

Citation

(2006), "Patent abstracts", Industrial Robot, Vol. 33 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2006.04933cad.003

Patent abstracts

Title: Procedure and means for replacing and procedure for repairing a section of a pipe in the primary circuit of a nuclear reactorApplicant: FRAMATOME ANP (FR)Patent number: US2005117686Publication date: 02/06/2005

Marking of the cuts which have to be made, cutting of the section at two ends, removal of the section which has to be replaced, bevelling of the joint ends of the parts remaining after the section has been cut out from the pipe, adjustment of a new or replacement section for length and bevelling of its joining ends and positioning and narrow bevel welding of the ends joining the replacement section to the ends of the remaining parts of the pipe are performed outside the pipe. Within the pipe operations of machining and inspecting an internal part of the joining ends welded together are performed by remote control in a programmed way by introducing and positioning means for working within the pipe from a component of the primary circuit. The procedure is in particular used to effect the replacement of a section of a cold leg of the primary circuit using means for carrying out work comprising a robot arm secured to a supporting chassis borne by a carriage which moves the means for carrying out work within the cold leg inserted into the cold leg through the volute of the primary pump of the nuclear reactor.

Title: Threaded rod fitting tool, especially for nuclear reactor vessel cover bolts, comprises robot with alignment monitor and control systemsApplicant: SKF EQUIPEMENTS (FR)Patent number: FR2860746Publication date: 15/04/2005

The tool consists of a robot with a system to monitor the coaxial alignment of a threaded bolt shank with a threaded hole, and a system to control the relative inclination of the rod and hole in accordance with data from the monitoring system. The robot, which has a gripper with a shaft to hold one end of the bolt, is equipped with a corrector for the vertical alignment of the shaft, and it can be moved relative to the threaded hole in a direction that is not parallel to the hole's axis. It also has a compensator for the weight of the bolt and a drive to rotate it about its axis.

Title: Fuel assembly inspection system (FAIS)Applicant: JUDGE JOHN JOSEPH (US)Patent number: US2004032924Publication date: 19/02/2004Abstract of US2004032924

By the use of two robotic arms installed on the dryer/separator guide rods of a nuclear reactor and the two stud mounted cameras, intotal called the FAIS, this invention can perform “real time” core verification, fuel orientation, fuel height seating and debris inspections and verification of proper fuel orientation without the use of the refuel bridge and by use of remote robotic techniques.

Title: Robot spot welding apparatus for nuclear fuel skeleton and spot welding method using the sameApplicant: KEPCO NUCLEAR FUEL CO LTD (US)Patent number: US2004144759Publication date: 29/07/2004

The present invention relates to a welding apparatus and a welding method for a nuclear fuel skeleton which is fabricated by welding guide tubes for power control rods and a instrumentation tube for measuring fuel to spacer grids having a plurality of cells, into which fuel rods are inserted. The automatic robot spot welding apparatus comprises: a welding bench including clamping frames, which are uniformly arrayed and have receiving portions for the spacer grids, and have, at both ends of the welding bench, fixing plates for the guide tubes and the instrumentation tube which are inserted into the spacer grids; a robot moving on a running rail, which is arranged in parallel to the welding bench, and having a welding gun for welding the spacer grids with the guide and instrumentation tubes; guide tube electrodes for being inserted into the guide tubes for the spot welding; a instrumentation tube electrode for being inserted into the instrumentation tube; and a controller having an apparatus control block and a robot control block for controlling components based on a program stored therein.