Abstract: An improved robotic arm system for servicing the tubesheet located within the channel head of a nuclear steam generator is provided. The system includes a robotic arm whose shoulder and elbow joints are rotatable only in the plane parallel to the tubesheet in order to eliminate the imposition of cantileverly-induced torques on the electric motors driving these joints, as well as to minimize the possibility of mechanical interference between the arm and the walls of the channel head. Each of the motorized joint assemblies of the arm includes resolvers connected not only to the output of the drive train that moves the joint, but also to the drive shaft of the electric motor that drives the drive train, wherein the feedback signal generated by the resolver connected to the drive shaft of the electric motor is the primary signal used to modulate the amount of electric power conducted to the motor of the joint. Such a configuration advantageously results in smoother robotic arm movement.

Abstract: A process for thermally stress-relieving a stressed portion of a metallic tube is disclosed herein. The process generally comprises the steps of inserting a small diameter radiant heater into the open end of the metallic conduit and then positioning it adjacent to the portion to be stress relieved, and heating this portion to a temperature between about 1150.degree. F. to 1500.degree. F. for a time period of between about four and twelve minutes, depending upon wall thickness. In order to determine the proper amount of electrical power to apply to the radiant heater, the emissivity of the stressed portion of the conduit is first measured by heating a portion of the section to incandescence at a known power level, and then determining the temperature of the incandescent tube by means of a pyrometer which compares the intensity of two selected colors or wavelengths of the transmitted light. This process is particularly useful in thermally stress-relieving the U-bends of heat exchanger tubes formed from Inconel.

Abstract: A process for rapidly and uniformaly heat treating an Inconel.RTM. heat exchanger tube in the vicinity of a heat sink such as a support plate is disclosed herein. The process utilizes a radiant heater assembly capable of directing heat along a zone whose length is less than the length of the section of tubing to be stress relieved, and generally comprises the step of actuating the heater assembly, and oscillating it between the ends of the tube section in order to heat the tube section having nonhomogeneous thermal conductivity to a temperature that is substantially uniform along its length. The specific timing pattern used in the oscillatory movement of the heater assembly results in a substantially uniform heat gradient along the tube axis despite conductive heat losses through the support plate. The process allows heat exchanger tubes to be readily and reliably stress-relieved in the vicinity of the support plates of a nuclear steam generator.

Abstract: A metal brazing sleeve includes a ceramic flux band formed on the sleeve adjacent an annular recess typically disposed near an open end of the sleeve for receiving a conventional braze preform, by adhering a powder flux to the sleeve by a tacky adhesive and then melting the powder flux in place, by internal heating of the tube. The ceramic flux band is hard and adherent, and resistant to abrasion effects during insertion of the sleeve into a tube, and provides a shadow effect for protecting an optional cemented powder flux band which may be formed on the braze ring.

Abstract: An improved process for brazing a sleeve within a tube is disclosed herein. In the first step of the process, a radial expansion is induced in the tube in a first longitudinal section which does not include the ring of brazing alloy which circumscribes the sleeve. In the second step of the process, the heat source which applies the heat to the tube is gradually translated from a position adjacent to the first longitudinal section of the tube, to a position adjacent to the ring of brazing alloy which circumscribes the sleeve. The resulting thermal expansion which is induced in the length of the tube between the first longitudinal section where the heat source is initially placed, and the ring of brazing alloy avoids the creation of gaps in the resulting braze joint by producing a tapered, stress-absorbing expansion in the tube having a minimum profile in the region where the brazed joint is formed.

Abstract: An apparatus for expanding a tube against the walls of a circumscribing bore, or a sleeve within a tube to effect an interference joint therebetween, is described herein. The tube expansion apparatus generally comprises a fluid mandrel connected to a hydraulic expansion unit for applying a radially expansive force to the tube or sleeve, and a control circuit electrically connected to the expansion unit and fluidly connected to the mandrel for sensing fluctuations in the pressure of the fluid discharged from the mandrel during the elastic and plastic deformation of the tube or sleeve during the expansion process, computing a final swaging pressure on the basis of these pressure fluctuations, and deactuating the hydraulic expansion unit when this final swaging pressure is attained within the tube or sleeve. The invention is particularly adapted for minimizing or eliminating the clearance between the heat exchange tubes of a nuclear reactor, and the baffle plate bores through which they extend.

Abstract: A process for the controlled expansion of a conduit against the walls of a circumscribing structure is disclosed herein. The process generally comprises the steps of applying a radially expansive force to the conduit, while monitoring a variable associated with the elastic and plastic properties of the particular conduit being expanded in order to determine a final swaging force which will complete the expansion process. The process of the invention is particularly useful in eliminating the clearance between heat exchanger tubes and baffle plates in a nuclear reactor, and in sleeving operations wherein an internally inserted sleeve is plastically deformed against a heat exchanger tube in order to affect an interference joint therebetween.

Abstract: A metal brazing sleeve includes a ceramic flux band formed on the sleeve adjacent an annular recess typically disposed near an open end of the sleeve for receiving a conventional braze preform, by adhering a powder flux to the sleeve by a tacky adhesive and then melting the powder flux in place, by internal heating of the tube. The ceramic flux band is hard and adherent, and resistant to abrasion effects during insertion of the sleeve into a tube, and provides a shadow effect for protecting an optional cemented powder flux band which may be formed on the braze ring.