Pellet sorting by diameter measurement
AssigneeAreva Nc
InventorPhilippe Ferlet
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system based on the continuous measurement (20) of the diameter of a cylindrical object (1) moving, laid down, on a belt conveyor (10) allows dimensional compliance of the latter object to be checked. The measurement system (20) may be coupled with a sorting system based on ejection out of the conveyor (10) by projecting a gas through a transverse nozzle (42). By means of the system according to the invention, it is possible to continuously determine whether a nuclear fuel pellet (1), in particular after rectification (2), has to be rejected or not.
Claims12
A method for checking dimensional compliance of cylindrical objects comprising:
- displacement at a predetermined velocity of the objects in a direction parallel to their axis (AA);
- interaction of a beam with the object perpendicularly to its displacement direction;
- determination of the diameter of a plurality of sections of the object by means of the representative signal of the interaction of said beam;
- computation of a diameter representative of the object on the basis of the determined diameters (Dλ) of the sections;
- computation of a characteristic k representative of the length L of the object on the basis of the number k of sections li for which the diameter Dλ was determined;
- comparison of the computed diameter d and length L with thresholds dmin, dmax, kmin, kmax with which the compliance of the object may be checked.
A device for determining compliance of pellets comprising:
- linear conveying means;
- a system for determination of a single dimension Dλ perpendicular to the conveying direction and during the conveying;
- means for storing determined dimensions Dλ;
- means for computing representative values of the length and diameter of the pellet by means of the plurality of the sole stored dimensions Dλ and for comparing the values with thresholds;
- a sorting system downstream from the determination system associated with the conveying means;
- means for actuating the sorting system via the results of the comparisons by the comparing means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.