Nuclear fuel rod wiping apparatus and method
First Claim
1. An apparatus for wiping an exterior surface of a tube, said wiping apparatus comprising:
- (a) means for moving a tube along a first path while concurrently rotating the tube about its own longitudinal axis; and
(b) means for moving a web of toweling along a second path generally across said first path and into contact with the tube moving along said first path so as to perform wiping of the exterior surface of the tube.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Tube wiping apparatus includes upper and lower reversely canted pinch rollers spaced along respective upper and lower sides of a first path along which the tube is moved and rotated by pairs of the upper and lower pinch rollers located at infeed and exit ends of the first path. The wiping apparatus also includes a toweling drive roll having an exterior surface engaging a toweling roll and carrying a continuous web of toweling along a second path, and a toweling pinch roll having an exterior surface pinching the toweling web between it and the drive roll for causing movement of the toweling web along the second path, across the first path and into contact with the tube so as to perform wiping of the exterior surface of the tube by the toweling. The drive roll with a yieldably resilient outer annular layer is disposed below a pair of the upper pinch rollers for capturing the tube therebetween as the tube is moved along the first path such that the roll outer layer and the toweling thereon are indented by contact with the tube causing the toweling to wrap partially around the tube exterior surface as wiping thereof occurs. A spray chamber is operable for applying a liquid spray to the tube to permit a wet wiping of the tube exterior surface by the toweling.
-
Citations
26 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for wiping an exterior surface of a tube, said wiping apparatus comprising:
-
(a) means for moving a tube along a first path while concurrently rotating the tube about its own longitudinal axis; and (b) means for moving a web of toweling along a second path generally across said first path and into contact with the tube moving along said first path so as to perform wiping of the exterior surface of the tube. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. An apparatus for wiping an exterior surface of a tube for removing any foreign matter adhered thereon, said wiping apparatus comprising:
-
(a) means for moving a tube along a first path while concurrently rotating the tube about its own longitudinal axis, said tube moving means includes (i) a plurality of upper tube pinch rollers each having a peripheral annular tube-engaging groove and being spaced one from the next along an upper side of said first path, (ii) a plurality of lower tube pinch rollers each having a peripheral annular tube-engaging groove and being spaced one from the next along a lower side of said first path, (iii) said pluralities of upper and lower pinch rollers including one pair thereof being located at an infeed end of said first path and another pair thereof being located at an exit end of said first path; and (vi) means drivingly coupled to one of said upper and lower rollers of said pairs thereof at said infeed and exit ends of said first path for rotatably driving the sam e to move the tube along said first path, (v) said upper and lower pinch rollers being canted with respect to said first path, said canting of said lower pinch rollers being the reverse of said canting of said upper pinch rollers such that rotation of said lower pinch rollers causes travel of the tube along said first path and concurrently rotation of the tube about its own axis; and (b) means for moving a web of toweling along a second path generally across said first path and into contact with the tube moving along said first path so as to perform wiping of the exterior surface of the tube. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. A method for wiping an exterior surface of a tube, said wiping method comprising the steps of:
-
(a) moving the tube along a first path while concurrently rotating the tube about its own longitudinal axis; (b) moving a web of toweling along a second path generally across said first path and into contact with the tube moving along said first path; and (c) establishing a region of moving contact between the moving and rotating tube and the moving toweling which performs wiping of the exterior surface of the tube. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26)
-
Specification