EP0045454A2 - Manipulator for the positioning of a tubular sonde - Google Patents

Abstract

The manipulator (M) for remote-controlled positioning of the tube probes connected to flexible supply hoses and serving for inspection and, if necessary, repairs, on the tube mouths of the tubes of a heat exchanger, in particular of steam generators for nuclear reactors, has a spacing mandrel (8, 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d) on the pipe mouths can be fastened to the support body (9) with guide track (10), furthermore a support (11) mounted on the support body (9) and linearly movable on its guide track and a bracket pivotally mounted on the support in the pipe-transverse plane (7), which carries at its free end a mouthpiece (6) which can be aligned or fitted onto the respectively selected pipe mouth and through which the respective pipe probe can be inserted into the associated heat exchanger pipe. There are at least three expandable and retractable expanding mandrels (8) distributed over the length of the supporting body (9). The boom (7) can be pivoted in an angular range (φ) of at least 360 ° - 2α, where α is defined by the relationship cos α = m / n, n the length of the boom and m the plumb line from the boom pivot point to the pipe field boundary chord (301) means. In each case one of the at least three expanding mandrels (8) is for the accessibility of the pipe mouth covered by it for the mouthpiece (6) and / or for the purpose of executing a swiveling or longitudinal adjustment of the boom (7) which is otherwise impeded by the expanding mandrel (8) in question while maintaining the Spreading intervention of the other expanding mandrels retractable.

Description

The invention relates to a manipulator for the remote-controlled positioning of inspection and, if necessary, repair pipe probes according to the preamble of claim 1.

Such a manipulator is known from DE-PS 22 63 143. In this known manipulator, the support body - referred to there as the device carrier - covers the pipe openings located in the area of its base area. Without moving the support body, there is no access to the covered pipe orifices for the pipe probe.

Another known manipulator of the type mentioned in DE-OS 25 52 341 works on the so-called finger walker principle. Such a finger walker basically consists of two mutually movable, sliding parts, each of which has its own expanding mandrels, which must be sufficient to lock the entire manipulator on the pipe field, even in an overhead position, so that the other part is loosened Spreader mandrels can move or stride and - after his spreader mandrels are locked again after executing the step - the other manipulator part can take a step, and so on. In the aforementioned known manipulator according to DE-OS.25 52 341, the two manipulator parts consist of two arms arranged at right angles to one another, which are relative to one another in the X or Y direction of an imaginary coordinate system and thus also are displaceable to the pipe field and each of which is provided with expanding mandrels at its ends. Such a finger walker is a relatively complicated structure, which must not only have the location control for the boom carrying the mouthpiece, but also the locomotion control for the striding mechanism.

The invention has for its object to provide a manipulator of the type mentioned, with which a 100% inspection of the tube field of a heat exchanger, in particular within the primary chamber of a steam generator for nuclear reactors, is possible without the manipulator being implemented after its one-time attachment and without it having to have the mechanics and controls of a finger walker.

According to the invention, the object is achieved in a manipulator of the type mentioned at the outset by the features specified in the characterizing part of claim 1. Advantageous further developments are described in the subclaims. The advantages that can be achieved with the invention are to be seen primarily in the fact that the manipulator once fixed and centered on the pipe field with the expanding mandrels of its supporting body no longer needs to be implemented and does not need to be advanced for a 100% pipe test; the straight movement of the support and the stepless swiveling movement of the boom are sufficient to paint over all pipe orifices. The expanding mandrels are therefore not retracted to advance, but only in order to enable the boom to be pivoted or adjusted longitudinally in this area and / or in order to make the pipe mouth occupied by the expanding mandrel accessible; Once the manipulator has been assembled and centered, it is retained.

• Fig. 1 in einem Längsschnitt eines Dampferzeugers die Seitenansicht des in der einen Primärkammerhälfte am Rohrboden befestigten und zentrierten Manipulators;
• Fig. 2 die Draufsicht auf den Manipulator nach Fig. 1 mit Blickrichtung von unten, wobei vier Ausleger-und zwei Support-Positionen.dargestellt sind;
• Fig. 3 die Ansicht in Blickrichtung A auf den Manipulator nach Fig. 2 und
• Fig. 4 im Ausschnitt eine Variante für den Ausleger des Manipulators mit Teleskopverstellung.

The invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the drawing which shows several exemplary embodiments. It shows in a simplified representation, leaving out the parts that are not necessary for understanding the invention:

• 1 shows a longitudinal section of a steam generator, the side view of the manipulator fastened and centered on the tube sheet in one primary chamber half;
• FIG. 2 shows the top view of the manipulator according to FIG. 1, viewed from below, showing four boom and two support positions;
• Fig. 3 shows the view in viewing direction A of the manipulator according to Fig. 2 and
• Fig. 4 in a detail a variant for the boom of the manipulator with telescopic adjustment.

The steam generator DE shown in FIG. 1 for pressurized water nuclear reactors has a boiler wall 1 with a welded-in tube sheet 2 and a dome wall part 1a for the two primary chamber halves Ia, Ib. The heat exchanger tubes 3 are welded into the tube sheet, of which only three are more clearly drawn out and the others are only indicated by dashed lines, with tube openings 3a pointing into the primary chamber 1a, 1b. The primary medium, treated normal water, which is heated in the core of the reactor pressure vessel, not shown, passes via a primary circuit pipeline, also not shown, via an invisible inlet connection, for example, into the primary chamber half 1a, which is separated from the primary chamber half 1b by a curved partition wall 4. It enters the tube bundle 3.1 via the orifices 3a, gives its heat to the ver contained in the secondary chamber II steaming secondary medium and flows via the U-tube bends into the second tube bundle 3.2, which it leaves via the tube orifices 3a and can thus be fed back into the primary chamber half 1b and their outlet connections (not shown) into the primary circuit for the purpose of reheating in the reactor core. The heat-exchanging pipes 3 of the steam generator DE must be subjected to a periodic check for cracks. This is done with a tube probe RS of an eddy current measuring device which can be moved into the tubes 3 and which is shown in FIG. 1 in a retracted position in the area of the tube mouth. In addition to the eddy current measuring probe RS mentioned, this can also be cleaning tools for cleaning pipes from the inside or repair tools, by means of which detonators can also be inserted to seal cracks.

The manipulator M is used to manipulate all of these probes, which consequently serves for the remote-controlled positioning of the tube probes RS, which are used for inspection and, if necessary, repair, on the tube mouths 3a of the tubes 3 of steam generators DE for the nuclear reactors, which tubes 3 are contained in the tube plate 2. Instead of steam generators, it could also generally be a heat exchanger with a corresponding tube plate 2. The probe RS is connected to a flexible supply hose 5.1, which at the same time serves as a push hose for the pipe probe RS at its end and which is mounted so that it can move back and forth within a flexible guide hose 5.2. Supply and guide hose 5.1, 5.2 are drawn out enlarged for a section in FIG. 1 and designated 5 as a whole. The guide hose 5.2 ends in a mouthpiece 6, which is supported by the free end of a boom 7 pivotably mounted in a tube-transverse plane.

As shown in FIG. 1 in connection with FIGS. 2 and 3, the manipulator M has a supporting body 9 with a guideway 10 in the form of a spindle, which can be fastened to the pipe orifices 3a by means of spaced-apart expanding mandrels 8, a bearing mounted on the supporting body 9 and on its guideway 10 rectilinear in the direction of x rectilinearly movable support 11 as well as the already mentioned arm 7 pivotably supported on the support 11 in a tube-transverse plane. The supporting body 9 consists of an elongated frame construction with end plates 9.1, which with the pivot bearings for the two ends of the one having an external thread Spindle 10 are provided. A drive motor 12 for the spindle 10 is also flanged to one of the circuit boards 9.1. The support 11 is a rigid cantilever beam, which is mounted with its traveling nut body 11.1 'on the spindle 10 so that when the spindle 10 is rotated, the support can be moved back and forth in the x direction depending on the direction of rotation, but cannot rotate with it . For this purpose, the support 11 grips with a U-shaped holding part 11.2, indicated schematically in FIG. 1, with upper and lower holding arms 11.21, 11.22, corresponding upper and lower guideways 9.2 of the support body 9. Through the angled end 11.23 of the upper guiding arm 11.21, which is not a engages shown guide bar of the support body 9, it is ensured that the support 11 can not fold down. All the guide surfaces on the support 11 and their counter surfaces on the support body 9 for moving the support in the x direction can be provided with roller bodies (not shown in more detail) in order to achieve a rolling instead of a sliding friction.

At the free end of the support 11 is formed on an upper support surface 9.3 of the same with in the working position of the Mani _- pulators vertical axis of rotation M 13, the housing of a rotary actuator 14 is flanged, which is to be an infinitely adjustable rotary motor, with the axis of rotation 13 of which serves as the joint head bearing body 7.1 of the boom 7 is connected. The length of the support body 9, the support 11 and the boom 7 is now each dimensioned such that by moving the support 11 in the x direction and by pivoting the boom 7 by the angle ϕ in an angular range of at least 360 ° - 2α , as explained in detail later, with the mouthpiece 6 of the boom 7 any pipe mouth 3a of the pipe field 30 can be reached (FIG. 2). The tube field 30 is indicated in detail in FIG. 2 by a grid of lines crossing at right angles and by the dash-dotted outline of a circular section.

Takes place _- (sondere Figure 1, see in particular.) By means of Spreizdornantrieben ,. extension and retraction of the spreading mandrels 8 Consisting of a push rod 8.2 having the expanding mandrel 8 at its free end and a drive housing 8.3 for the push rod 8.2, which acts as a pneumatic cylinder for the corresponding. Pneumatic pistons (not shown) having push rods 8.2 can be designed. The expansion mandrels 8 are extended and retracted in the shown working position of the manipulator in the z direction, see arrow. Structure and function of such expanding mandrels are known per se and described in more detail, for example, in DE-OS 25 52 341, so that. a detailed explanation can be dispensed with here.

2 and 3 show that at least three, in the present case there are four expandable mandrels 8 that can be extended and retracted and distributed over the length of the supporting body 9. Fig. 2 also illustrates using the boom positions 7, 7 ', 7 "and 7''' that the boom 7 is pivotable in an angular range of 360 ° - 2α, and that is infinitely pivotable, so that the mouthpiece 6 is aligned with any pipe mouth 3a and thus the pipe probe RS without problems The tube probe RS is also expediently tapered at its retracting end in order to facilitate insertion with slight lateral deviations The angle α is defined by the relationship cos α = m: n, where n is the length of the arm 7 and m means the solder from the boom pivot point 13 to the pipe field limiting chord 301. This becomes clearer when looking at FIG. 2 and the boom positions 7, 7 ", 7""and7". From position 7 of the boom shown with solid lines, it can be moved by swiveling clockwise p _u into position 7 ". It thus reaches the pipe field limiting chord 301 and the pipe orifices lying on this chord. Now the support 11 in direction x1 all pipe orifices lying in this direction can be reached from the mouthpiece 6 to the outermost position 7 "" with the exception of the pipe orifices occupied by the expanding mandrels 8c and 8d. Therefore, if the boom with its mouthpiece 6 shortly before the through the The expansion mandrel 8c or 8d is covered, the expansion mandrels are briefly retracted or retracted in the direction z1 (FIG. 1), but the remaining expansion mandrels 8a, 8b and 8d (in the case of the lifted expansion mandrel 8c) remain in engagement receive the fastening and centering position of the manipulator M or of the support body 9. The same applies accordingly when moving away from the expanding mandrel 8d bedec kten pipe mouth; this expanding mandrel 8d is disengaged to test the corresponding heat exchanger tube, while the remaining 8a, 8b and 8c remain engaged. If the remaining pipe orifices lying on the limiting chord 301 are to be approached, so the boom 7 must be pivoted to the position 7 ', for which it is necessary to bring it into a central position, ie to move the support 11 so that the pivot point 13 lies on the axis of symmetry y. Then it is possible to pivot the boom 7 in the counter-pointer direction G into the position 7 '. When the pipe mouths on the limiting chord 301 can then be moved down, the expanding mandrel 8a is pulled in briefly, as has already been explained in principle, so that 1. the boom can continue to be moved and 2. also a check of the pipe blocked by the expanding mandrel. As can be seen, the mouthpiece 6 of the boom 7 reaches all pipe orifices 3a of the pipe field 30 by appropriate adjustment operations, irrespective of whether the pipe field is based on a cartesian or a polar coordinate system. To report the respective position of the boom 7, its rotary motor 14 is assigned an angle encoder, and the support 11 can, for example, engage with the pinion of a length encoder with a toothed rack attached to the support body 9 parallel to the spindle 10, so that from the corresponding pulses of length -and angle encoder can be calculated using a computer on a control panel, the exact tube position in Cartesian coordinates that the mouthpiece-6 is currently occupying. As can be seen, the manipulator M is positioned symmetrically to the axis of symmetry y and the length of the arm 7 is also matched to this position. The electrical supply lines for the adjusting motors 12 and 14 as well as the length and angle encoders, and also the pneumatic supply lines for the expanding mandrel cylinders 8.3 are omitted for the sake of simplicity.

3, an expanding mandrel 8 'is indicated by dashed lines, which could be used in a second embodiment instead of the two expanding mandrels 8c and 8b, so that the manipulator M with the expanding mandrels 8a, 8' and 8d would be equipped. Three expanding mandrels represent the minimum per manipulator, since two of them must always be in engagement in the manipulator M test position. The first embodiment with four expanding mandrels, however, provides increased clamping security, since if one of the at least three expanding mandrels that fail to engage at the same time fails, two are still engaged. It is also possible to provide more than four expanding mandrels.

Fig. 4 shows in detail a boom 70 which is adjustable in length, due to a telescopic linkage with cylinder part 71 and piston part 72. Such a boom can be shortened in length by almost half, which e.g. has the advantage that - see FIG. 2 - for pivoting the boom from position 7 to position 7 'it does not need to be moved into the middle position. In addition, the advantage can be achieved that no such precise adjustment of the boom length and the dimensions of the support 11 and the support body 9 need be made to the inner contours of the steam generator chamber; this would make such a manipulator more universal, i.e. Can be used for different steam generator sizes with different primary chamber dimensions.

In addition to the expanding mandrels, an even better, vibration-proof support of the manipulator M within the primary chamber half 1b can be achieved in that the support body 9 has a support device 15 with at least one support leg 15.1 which can be braced laterally against the partition 4. This is advantageously a pneumatic piston-cylinder arrangement. The support leg 15.1 is e.g. articulated with a ball joint to the piston rod 15.2 in order to adapt to the curvature of the partition 4.

The dash-dotted partial representation of the manipulator M in the left part of FIG. 1 within the primary chamber half 1a illustrates that it is possible to move the mouthpiece 6 into acute-angled niches 16, which are caused by the convex curvature of the partition wall 4, but with the flexibility of guide and supply hose 5.2, 5.1 special requirements are made.

In the case of a straight tube steam generator, the primary chamber of the steam generator is not divided by a partition 4; in this case it would be advantageous to use a manipulator M which by doubling, i.e. Reflection on its expanding mandrel connection axis is to be thought and thus has a support 11 with a bracket 7 on each side of the longitudinal axis of a support body 9 doubled in this way. In this case, both swivel arms could even work at the same time, which would allow around half the test time compared to a manipulator with only one arm.

The manipulator M is inserted through the manhole ML (the cover, not shown, of which is removed for this purpose) when the steam generator primary chamber is drained, and is brought into the test position that can best be seen in FIG. 2. All that is required is a short stay of operating personnel in protective suits in the primary chamber. After the test has been carried out, the manipulator M is dismantled and removed accordingly. It is also fundamentally possible, in order to prevent operators from entering the steam generator primary chamber, by a rail system projecting from the outside through the nozzle into the primary chamber at the manhole connector ML1 attach to which the manipulator M is raked up on the outside and can then be moved remotely into its test position, as already explained in DE-OS 28 30 306.

Claims (5)

1. Manipulator for the remote-controlled positioning of the inspection and, if necessary, repairing tube probes connected to flexible supply hoses on the tube mouths of the tubes of a heat exchanger, in particular of steam generators for nuclear reactors, which are attached to one another by means of spaced-apart expansion mandrels that can be attached to the tube mouths has a guideway, a support mounted on the support body and linearly movable on its guideway, and a bracket pivotably mounted on the support in the tube-transverse plane, which carries at its free end a mouthpiece which can be aligned or fitted onto the respectively selected tube mouth, which connected to a flexible guide hose surrounding the supply hoses for the purpose of longitudinally displaceable movement and through which the respective tube probe can be moved into the associated heat exchanger tube, characterized in that at least ns three extendable and retractable expanding mandrels (8) distributed over the length of the support body (9) are provided and that the arm (7) can be pivoted in an angular range (ϕ) of at least 360 ^{0 -} 2 α, where α is due to the relationship cos α = m / n is defined, n is the length of the boom and m is the plumb line from the boom pivot point to the pipe field limiting chord (301) and one of the at least three expanding mandrels (8) for the purpose of accessibility of the pipe mouth (3a) covered by it the mouthpiece (6) and / or for the purpose of executing a pivoting or longitudinal adjustment of the arm (7) which is otherwise impeded by the expanding mandrel (8) in question, while maintaining the spreading engagement of the other expanding mandrels. 2. Manipulator according to claim 1, characterized in that the boom (7) is adjustable in length. 3. Manipulator according to claim 2, characterized in that the boom is a telescopic boom (70) with a telescopic linkage (71, 72). 4. Manipulator according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the support body (9) has four expansion mandrels evenly distributed over its length (8a - 8d). 5. Manipulator according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the subject to be inspected steam generator, a U-tube steam generator is provided with a separated by an arched partition into two primary chamber halves primary chamber, characterized in that the supporting _- member (9) comprises a support means (15 ) with at least one support leg (15.1) that can be braced laterally against the partition (4).

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