Back to results
US 8,137,090 B2Granted
Device for producing nuclear fuel pellets and production method applying such a device
AssigneeAreva Nc
InventorsRemy Lavoine, Pierre Guelfi, Jean-Luc Pandraud
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Production device including a press, a conveyor (4) intended to transport pellets from the press to a sintering area, means (26) for transferring pellets from the press to the conveyor (4), and means for inspecting at least one nuclear fuel pellet at the exit of a press, said inspection means including means (20) for identifying each pellet according to its die of origin.
Claims16
A device for producing nuclear fuel pellets comprising:
- a press provided with dies,
- a conveyor intended to transport pellets from the press to a sintering area,
- means for transferring pellets from the press to the conveyor,
- means for inspecting at least one nuclear fuel pellet at the exit of a press, said inspection means including means for identifying each pellet according to its die of origin, said identification means being formed by a succession of housings borne by the surface of the conveyor, and each capable of receiving a pellet, each of the housings being associated with a determined die,
- means for allowing the housing of the surface of the conveyor to be aligned with the dies,
- means for stopping the conveyor for loading the pellets in the housings of the conveyor;
- an analyzer to analyze the picked-up pellets;
- and
- at least one means for picking up the at least one pellet on a determined die to bring it to the analysis device, and wherein the means for picking up the at least one pellet is configured to pick up a pellet originating from a die different from the one of the a previously picked-up pellet and loading of the pellets is carried out by organized displacement of the conveyor such that at any instant the origin of each pellet is known and used by the inspection means to provide intelligent selection of pellets for inspection.
6 more elements
A device for producing nuclear fuel pellets comprising:
- a press provided with dies;
- a conveyor configured to transport pellets from the press to a sintering area;
- means for transferring pellets from the press to the conveyor, and wherein loading of the pellets onto the conveyor is carried out by organized displacement of the conveyor such that at
- any instant the origin of each pellet is known and used by inspection means to provide intelligent selection of pellets for inspection;
- the means for inspecting at least one pellet at the exit of the press, said inspection means including means for identifying each pellet according to its die of origin and being formed by a succession of housings borne by the surface of the conveyor, and each housing capable of receiving a pellet, each of the housings being associated with a determined die.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.