Remotely replaceable tokamak plasma limiter tiles
AssigneeUnited States Department of Energy
InventorGallix, Remy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
U-shaped limiter tiles placed end-to-end over a pair of parallel runners secured to a wall have two rods which engage L-shaped slots in the runners. The short receiving legs of the L-shaped slots are perpendicular to the wall and open away from the wall, while long retaining legs are parallel to and adjacent the wall. A sliding bar between the runners has grooves with clips to retain the rods pressed into receiving legs of the L-shaped slots in the runners. Sliding the bar in the direction of retaining legs of the L-shaped slots latches the tiles in place over the runners. Resilient contact strips between the parallel arms of the U-shaped tiles and the wall assure thermal and electrical contact with the wall.
Claims10
In an apparatus for containing plasma in a high energy device having walls defining a plasma chamber, at least one rail limiter disposed on a wall within the plasma chamber, said rail limiter consisting of a plurality of discrete tiles arranged end on end, each tile having a uniform U-shaped cross section throughout its length with short parallel arms and two spaced-apart transverse rods inserted through bores in said parallel arms with a portion of each rod exposed between said parallel arms, and means for latching said discrete tiles on said wall comprising a pair of parallel runners affixed to said wall, said runners being spaced from one another sufficiently to just fit between said arms of said tiles, and means for releasably retaining said discrete tiles on said runners, said releasably retaining means comprising two L-shaped slots in each runner for each tile, each of said slots having a short leg perpendicular to the length of said runner for receiving a rod, and a long leg parallel to said wall, each long leg of every slot extending in the same direction for retaining a rod received by said short leg thereof, and a sliding bar between said runners having means for engagement with said rods in said slots to move said tiles in a direction for forcing said rods into said long legs of said slots.
Apparatus for releasably retaining a column of U-shaped tiles on a wall comprising
- a pair of runners provided on said wall to which a discrete column of U-shaped tiles is to be retained, said runners being spaced from one another sufficiently to just fit between parallel arms of said U-shaped tiles, and having at least one separate pair of slots for each tile to be retained, one slot of a pair in each runner,
- a separate rod mounted in each tile through bores in said parallel arms of said U-shaped tile to be retained, each rod engaging a pair of slots in said runners, said slots being L-shaped to provide a receiving leg perpendicular to said wall and a retaining leg parallel to said wall, and
- a sliding bar having means for engaging said rod of each tile in said slots, said engaging means being comprised of a transverse groove for each rod to permit said receiving leg of each slot to receive a rod to the depth of said retaining leg, whereby sliding said bar in the direction of said retaining legs and parallel to said wall forces said rods into said retaining legs for latching said tiles in place.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.