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US 3,988,922 AGranted
Vessel examination system
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJack Phillip Clark, Thurman Dale Smith, Alan Carl Foster
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for on-site, non-destructive examination of the seam welds or other portions of the walls of a vessel, for example, a nuclear reactor pressure vessel, including an instrument carrying, remotely controlled vehicle with magnetic adherence means which may be selectively propelled to any position on the walls of the vessel and including an ultrasonic signal system utilizing a triangulation technique for remotely indicating the position of the vehicle on the vessel.
Claims26
Apparatus for examining a vessel formed of magnetic metal comprising:
- a remotely controlled vehicle including a frame and having a longitudinal axis;
- magnetic means for providing adherence of said vehicle to said vessel while allowing movement of said vehicle over the surface of said vessel;
- propelling means for propelling said vehicle in the direction of said longitudinal axis;
- steering means for turning said vehicle;
- remotely operable controlling means for controlling said propelling and steering means;
- indicating means for indicating the location of said vehicle on said vessel including;
- generating means for generating an acoustic vehicle location signal, transmitting means mounted on said vehicle for transmitting said acoustic signal through the walls of said vessel, at least three acoustic signal detectors positioned at spaced locations on said vessel for receiving said acoustic vehicle location signal and for producing output signals in response thereto, and triangulation means connected to said detectors and responsive to said output signals from said detectors to provide an indication of the location of said vehicle on said vessel;
- and scanning means mounted on said frame of said vehicle in proximity to the surface of said vessel for examining local portions of said vessel.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.