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US 3,943,756 AGranted
Wall inspection device
AssigneeCommissariat a l'Energie Atomique
InventorsGilles Aubert, Roger Lemoine, Andre Maury, Maurice Moulin, Erik Tomachevsky
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AssigneeCommissariat a l'Energie Atomique
InventorsGilles Aubert, Roger Lemoine, Andre Maury, Maurice Moulin, Erik Tomachevsky
Estimating the term…
The invention relates to a device for inspecting at a distance walls which are difficult of access such as metal walls forming a nuclear reactor vessel. The device comprises a detector secured to a slide movable along guide rails attached to a frame. Probes bearing on the metal walls are secured to a plate on the frame, each probe transmitting a signal proportional to the distance between the guide rails and the place where the probe bears on the part of the wall to be checked. The device includes two motors secured to a second frame and which are controlled by electrical signals from the probes. Each motor actuates a pinion engaging the racks secured by pivots to the first frame and the two ends of the guide rails. A potentiometric monitoring device stops the motors when the signals proportional to the distance between the wall and guide rails as measured by the probes are equal to one another and to a controlled value. The detector preferably comprises an assembly of transducers and ultrasonic receivers.
A device for inspecting at a distance walls which are difficult of access, the device being used inter alia for inspecting cracks, threaded apertures and welds in the walls of a nuclear reactor vessel comprising a detector secured on a movable slide, guide rails secured to a frame B.sub.1 along which the slide moves, probes bearing on a wall being inspected and secured to a plate secured to frame B.sub.1 and parallel to the guide rails, each probe sending a signal proportional to the distance between the guide rails and the place where the probe bears on the wall to be checked, two motors M.sub.1 and M.sub.2 secured to a frame B.sub.2 controlled by electric signals from the probes and each actuating a pinion, the pinions engaging racks secured by pivots to frame B.sub.1 to the two ends of the guide rails, and a potentiometric monitoring device which stops the motors when the signals proportional to the distance between the wall and the guide rails and measured by the probes are equal to one another and to a control valve.
A device for monitoring the collar at the top of a reactor vessel and threaded apertures therein, comprising a frame B.sub.10 secured by a rotary bearing to a frame B.sub.11 screwed to the horizontal flange H of a vertical bearing mast, a motor M.sub.11 secured to frame B.sub.10 driving a pinion engaging a toothed rim secured to frame B.sub.11, a horizontal flip-flop secured to frame B.sub.10 by a spring and pivot system and bearing on an inner flange at the periphery or at the top of the reactor vessel, an assembly comprising a motor M.sub.12, rack and pinion secured to the flip-flop and moving forward an arm bearing transducers, and an assembly comprising a motor M.sub.13 and a nut and screw secured to the end of the arm bearing the transducers and adapted to pivot a transducer head.
A device for observing an inner flange at the top of a reactor vessel, secured to a frame of a collar-checking device and in an extension thereof, comprising a movable slide conveying a transducer along a line parallel to the vertical generatrices of the cylinder forming the reactor vessel, the slide being driven by a system comprising a motor M.sub.3, a screw, a nut and guide rails secured to a frame B.sub.12, a probe bearing on the wall of the vessel and secured to frame B.sub.12 and actuating a motor M.sub.4 which simultaneously drives two pinions engaging two racks perpendicular to the vessel wall and secured to frame B.sub.12 by pivots and, the motor M.sub.4 bearing the slide secured to the frame of the device for monitoring the collar.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.