GB1372319A - Irradiation plant - Google Patents

Abstract

1372319 Irradiation apparatus SULZER BROS Ltd 30 March 1972 [5 April 1971] 15102/72 Heading H5R An irradiation plant through which units of material to be irradiated can be passed includes an access section, through which the units enter and leave the plant, having two upwardly extending passages separated by a shielding wall and connected by a cross-passage above the shielding wall. As shown, the units are conveyed round a radioactive source 2 in one or other of two separate paths 170, 171 having similar but independent access arrangements formed, for the inner path 171, by vertical guideways 30, 31 on the outer side of the shielding wall 7, and 25 and 26 on the inner side of the wall. The units are moved through the apparatus, through the sequence of positions A, C, D, E, path 171, F, G, H, I, A, Fig. 5, in frames each containing receptacles for three units one above another, a frame at the end of a cycle occupying the position A, in which the three units are ejected from the frame, the lowermost into the exit passage from the plant (19, Fig. 3, not shown), and the upper two into a pair of storage cells (106 and 107). The frame is then raised the height of one receptacle to the position B, and the receptacles simultaneously filled, the lower two from the storage cells and the top one from the plant entrance passage (18), whereby each unit makes three circuits through the apparatus in successively lower positions in a frame. Horizontal movement is produced by a series of rams, and vertical movement by lifting plates simultaneously movable in the four guideways by a cable and pulley arrangement. A frame slides into a pair of rails mounted on a trolley which itself slides into rails on a lifting plate, fixed rails between the guideways, aligned with the trolley or guide plate rails when the lifting plates are in their end positions, permitting the required movement between guideways.