JP2001074880A - Traverser for carrying nuclear fuel body - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To analyze the smoothness of a rail surface, and to evaluate the time for exchanging the rail by detecting the amount of unevenness of the rail surface by a non-contact-type detector for an amount of displacement, and by analyzing and evaluating the condition of the rail based on the detection. SOLUTION: When the traveling of a traverse 1 is started, detection data from laser displacement gauges 15 and 18 and distance data from the pulse encoder of a traveling wheel 3 are sent to a rail condition analysis/evaluation means 20 for processing. In this manner, although the analysis/evaluation means 20 obtains the detection data on the amount of unevenness of the surface of a rail 8 for each traveling distance, the amount of noise or a specific value is included in the detection data at this time. The analysis/evaluation means 20 for eliminating such noise or the like compares the detection data waveform from the displacement gauges 15 and 18 for eliminating a noise or a peculiar value. If this traverser 1 is used, analysis and evaluation of the rail 8 can be done easily and accurately even by an unskilled operator.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a traverser for transporting a nuclear fuel assembly used for transporting a nuclear fuel assembly in a nuclear fuel assembly manufacturing plant.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A nuclear fuel assembly is an assembly of a predetermined number (for example, about 60) of nuclear fuel rods having a length of about 4 m and arranged on a grid inside a spacer member. The nuclear fuel assembly is mounted and transported on a carrier called a stacker crane in each of the processes such as an assembly process, an inspection process, and a packing process. After the final process, the nuclear fuel assembly is mounted on the stacker crane. In this state, the entire stacker crane is transported to the nuclear fuel storage by a larger transporter called a traverser and stored on a predetermined shelf in the storage.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are explanatory views showing a schematic configuration of the traverser, wherein FIG. 3A is a side view and FIG. 3B is a front view. In these figures, a traverser 1 is a base 2
A traveling wheel 3 attached to the base 2, a base 2
And a beam portion 5 provided on an upper portion of the column portion 4, and a guide roller 6 attached to the beam portion 5. A stacker crane on which the nuclear fuel assembly 7 is mounted is mounted on the base 2.

[0004] The traveling wheels 3 are rotatably driven by a drive motor (not shown) so as to travel on steel rails 8. Since the rail 8 is laid through a plurality of buildings (vertical houses) in the factory, a rail joint is provided near the boundary between the houses, and the rail joint is about several millimeters in length. Is formed. An upper rail 9 is laid above the beam 5, and a pair of guide rollers 6 located on both sides of the upper rail 9 rotate and move along the upper rail 9. At this time, when the traverser 1 carries the nuclear fuel body 7 and the stacker crane, the rail 8 receives a large pressing force of about 1.5 tons from the traveling wheel 3.

[0005] Conventionally, automation has been promoted in each manufacturing process of the nuclear fuel assembly, and the operation of the traverser 1 is also performed by automatic control. At this time, during operation of the traverser 1, vibration or impact (G) is minimized so as not to adversely affect the quality of nuclear fuel pellets filled in each nuclear fuel rod constituting the nuclear fuel assembly.
Value) is required to be performed quietly and smoothly so as not to cause the value. For this reason, special attention is paid to the control at the time when the traverser 1 starts traveling and when it stops traveling. Further, the rails 8 are also constantly inspected and maintained so that the rail surface height of the reels 8 facing each other across the gap 8a is as uniform as possible.

Currently, two types of traveling wheels 3 of the traverser 1 are used: rubber tire wheels and steel wheels. Both are common in that the propulsive force of the traverser 1 is obtained by the frictional resistance generated between the wheels and the rails. However, in the case of the rubber tire wheels, most of the fine vibrations during traveling are caused by the rubber tires. Although it has the advantage of being absorbed by the elasticity of
There is a disadvantage in that the base 2 moves up and down due to its elasticity during braking.

On the other hand, in the case of steel wheels, there is no problem that the base part 2 moves up and down during braking, but the steel rails 8 are kept moving while the operation of the traverser 1 is continued. Another problem arises that the tires are worn due to friction with the running wheels 3 made of steel. Since the rail 8 receives a large pressing force of about 1.5 tons from the traveling wheels 3 as described above, the amount of wear due to friction at this time is not negligible. If this is left as it is, the difference in the amount of unevenness on the surface of the rail 8 increases due to abrasion, so that it is not possible to obtain good smoothness, and the step at the rail joint is also increased, so that G for nuclear fuel is increased. The value will increase. Further, after the stacker crane on which the nuclear fuel assembly 7 is mounted is stopped at a predetermined stop position, the stacker crane is sent from the traverser 1 to a storage shelf in the nuclear fuel assembly storage. If the difference is large, poor positioning accuracy at the time of stop occurs,
A situation occurs in which the stacker crane cannot be sent to the storage shelf.

Therefore, conventionally, an operator has always monitored the condition of the surface of the rail 8 visually, and based on the degree of spread of the gloss of the contact surface of the rail 8 with the traveling wheel 3, etc., the degree of wear of the rail 8 has been reduced. For places considered to be intense, a finishing work is performed manually to suppress the maximum value of the local unevenness to less than 0.1 mm. When the local unevenness is likely to exceed 0.1 mm, the rail is replaced with a new rail. In this case, the step of the joint surface between the rail to be replaced and the rail before and after the rail is 0.1 mm. 1
mm so that it does not exceed 0.2 mm. Furthermore, the presence or absence of cracks or other flaws is detected by the eddy current flaw detection method, the X-ray method, the ultrasonic analysis method, or the like in the vicinity of the place where the degree of wear is considered to be severe.

[0009]

However, as described above, the operation of specifying a place where the degree of wear of the rail 8 is considered to be severe is determined based on the degree of spread of the gloss of the contact surface of the rail 8 with the traveling wheel 3. This operation cannot be performed unless the operator has a high level of skill, and is not an easy task for a high level of skill.

[0010] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, without relying on visual observation of highly skilled workers,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a traverser for transporting a nuclear fuel body, which can analyze and evaluate rail conditions.

[0011]

Means for Solving the Problems As means for solving the above problems, the invention according to claim 1 has a steel traveling wheel rotating and traveling on a steel rail and holds a nuclear fuel body. When a stacker crane to be loaded is stopped at a predetermined position in a loaded state, the positioning control is performed with high accuracy. And a rail state analysis / evaluation means for analyzing the smoothness of the rail surface based on the detection of the displacement amount detector and evaluating the rail replacement time. It is characterized by the following.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the first rail condition analyzing / evaluating means includes a step of determining a level difference between rails at a rail joint portion when analyzing the smoothness of the rail surface. The data can be corrected in advance.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, the displacement amount detector is attached to a slide guide member fixed to the traverser main body, and a distance between the displacement guide and the rail surface is reduced. It is adjustable.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the displacement detector comprises:
The traverser body is provided at two positions, a front part and a rear part.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, the same components as those shown in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted. FIG.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a main configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.
In this figure, a drive motor 10 is attached to a side surface on one end side of a base portion 2, and a belt member 11 is stretched between a shaft 10 a of the base portion 2 and a shaft 3 a of the traveling wheel 3. The driving force is transmitted to the traveling wheels 3.

A support member 12 is fixed to a side surface of one of the pillars 4 located above the drive motor 10, and a slide guide 13 is fixed to a tip end of the support member 12. A slide member 14 is attached to the slide guide 13 so as to be vertically slidable along the guide surface, and a laser displacement meter 15 as a displacement detector is attached to the slide member 14. . A slide guide 16 is attached to a side surface on the other end side of the base 2.
, A slide member 17 is attached so as to be slidable up and down along the guide surface. A laser displacement meter 18 as a displacement detector is attached to the slide member 17.

The traverser 1 is a computer device 19
The computer device 19 has rail condition analysis / evaluation means 20. Laser displacement meter 15,
Numeral 18 detects the amount of unevenness on the surface of the rail 8, and the detection data is sent to the rail state analyzing / evaluating means 20. Further, a pulse encoder (not shown) is provided on the traveling wheel 3 on the side where the belt member 11 is stretched, and the distance data is transmitted from the pulse encoder to the rail state analyzing / evaluating means 20. Has become.

The rail condition analysis / evaluation means 20 analyzes the smoothness of the surface of the rail 8 based on the input of the detection data corresponding to the distance data, and evaluates the rail replacement time based on the analysis result. It has become. Preferably, the laser displacement meters 15 and 18 are line sensors capable of covering at least an area larger than the rail width. This can be considered as a case where the contact portion between the rail 8 and the traveling wheel 3 is a line contact and a case where the contact portion is a surface contact. The point sensor can detect the amount of unevenness in both cases. Because you can't.

The operation environment for detecting the amount of irregularities on the surface of the rail 8 will now be described.
And an empty car without a stacker crane. Although the detection data cannot be collected even when the nuclear fuel body 7 and the stacker crane are mounted, there is a difference in the influence on the rail 8 and the measurement system, such as a difference in the center of gravity of the traverser 1 between the empty state and the loaded state. It is thought to come. Therefore, in the present embodiment, in order to minimize the influence on the measurement system, the empty vehicle state is adopted as the measurement environment system.

The traveling speed of the traverser 1 is set to a sufficiently low traveling speed so as not to cause lifting during traveling. Even if the detection data is collected while traveling at such a low traveling speed, it is considered that vibrations to the measurement system always occur. Therefore, the laser displacement gauges 15 and 18 are attached to members that sufficiently consider rigidity. Shall be. Even so, the effect on the measurement system cannot be completely eliminated, so the data obtained at the time of the first measurement can be used as a background measurement value and the amount of change from this can be tracked. it can.

Next, the operation of detecting the amount of unevenness on the surface of the rail 8 using the traverser 1 configured as described above, and the operation of analyzing and evaluating the state of the rail 8 based on the detected data are shown in FIG. This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Before the traverser 1 performs these operations, a staff member adjusts the positions of the laser displacement meters 15 and 18 in the height direction in advance, and fixes these displacement meters at appropriate positions.

The rail condition analyzing / evaluating means 20 firstly
Initial setting is performed based on an operation command of a staff member (step 1). The initial setting items include, for example, the machine number of the traverser 1, the name of the measurer, the measurement direction (running direction), the detected room temperature, and the data collection frequency. The reason why the room detected temperature is input is that it is necessary to correct the value of the detected data in the data processing stage because the amount of unevenness on the surface of the rail 8 varies depending on the room temperature. The data collection frequency is different for the purpose of roughly grasping the state of the entire rail 8 and for the purpose of grasping the displacement of a local portion of the rail 8 in detail. In the former case, The frequency is relatively low, and the latter is high.

Next, the correction amount of the step difference data at the rail joint is set in advance (step 2). This is because when the traverser 1 passes through the gap 8a at the joint of the rails, the moment when the front wheel and the rear wheel are on different rails occurs, the measured value over a certain range indicates the actual unevenness of the rail 8. It does not represent the situation. In other words, since a true value cannot be obtained by using the laser displacement gauges 15 and 18 as they are even at the rail joints, a step between the rails 8 facing each other with the gap 8a interposed therebetween can be measured by a staff member such as a dial gauge. In addition to measuring with a general measuring tool, the smoothness near the step is confirmed in advance by a level gauge. From these two data, the actual step condition of each rail 8 including the gap portion 8a can be grasped. By comparing these two data with continuous data based on the actual traveling of the traverser 1, it is possible to obtain the true value. It is possible to identify a range of influence that causes a difference. Therefore, in this identified range, the correction data (offset value) is added to the detection data of the laser displacement meters 15 and 18.
The detection data from the laser displacement gauges 15 and 18 also represent the actual unevenness of the rail 8 in this range.

Next, the rail condition analyzing / evaluating means 20 outputs a traveling start command (step 3). This allows
The shaft 10a of the drive motor 10 rotationally drives the shaft 3a of the traveling wheel 3 via the belt member 11, and the traveling of the traverser 1 is started. Although FIG. 1 shows that the control command from the rail condition analyzing / evaluating means 20 is directly issued to the drive motor 10, the control command from the rail condition analyzing / evaluating means 20 is actually used. The command is output to a speed control circuit provided in a higher-order computer device than the computer device 19.

When the traveling of the traverser 1 is started, the detection data from the laser displacement meters 15 and 18 and the traveling wheels 3
The distance data from the pulse encoder (not shown) is sent to the rail state analyzing / evaluating means 20, and the rail state analyzing / evaluating means 20 performs processing on these input data (step 5). As described above, the rail state analysis / evaluation means 20 obtains detection data on the amount of unevenness on the surface of the rail 8 for each traveling distance, but the detection data at this time contains noise or singular values. I have. Causes of this noise component or singular value generation include the influence of vibration on the measurement system as described above, and the fact that the traveling speed is not sufficiently low and the traverser 1 is raised. In this embodiment, two laser displacement meters 15 and 18 are provided to remove such noise or singular values. That is, the rail state analysis / evaluation means 20 removes noise or singular values by comparing the detection data waveforms from both of these displacement meters.

A predetermined allowable value is set in advance for the detection data from the laser displacement meters 15 and 18, and the rail state analyzing / evaluating means 20 performs the processing for removing the noise component or the singular value as described above. It is always determined whether or not the value after this exceeds the allowable value (step 6). If the value after the data processing does not exceed the allowable value, the rail state analyzing / evaluating means 20 next determines whether or not the traverser 1 has finished traveling a predetermined distance and has finished collecting data (step 7). . If it has not ended, the process returns to step 4 to continue collecting detection data, and if it has ended, it outputs a travel stop command (step 8). If the value after the data processing exceeds the allowable value in step 6, the process immediately proceeds to step 8 to output a travel stop command.

The rail condition analysis / evaluation means 20 outputs a travel stop command to stop the traverser 1, and then analyzes the smoothness of the surface of the rail 8 based on the data obtained up to that time to determine the rail replacement time. An evaluation is performed (step 9). That is, the rail state analysis / evaluation means 20 calculates the amount of unevenness for each part of the rail 8 and estimates the value of the amount of unevenness in the future with reference to the historical data so far. Based on this estimated value, the rail state analysis / evaluation means 20 evaluates how much time has elapsed after which the rail should be replaced. The analysis and evaluation results are displayed on a display device (not shown) or printed out by a printer (step 10).

The use of the traverser 1 having the above-described configuration enables the rail 8 to be easily and accurately analyzed and evaluated even by a non-skilled worker. The G value for the fuel body 7 can be kept low, and adverse effects on nuclear fuel can be prevented.

Further, if the traverser 1 is used, the smoothness of the surface of the rail 8 can be easily analyzed.
By repeating this analysis and the rail repair work alternately, the entire rail 8 can be repaired over a predetermined section. Further, according to the traverser 1, it is possible to accurately grasp the state of wear at the rail joints and at places where sudden braking is unavoidable for control, so that the position of the rail joints, the running speed, etc. are reset. In that case, valid data can be obtained.

In the above embodiment, the laser displacement gauges 15 and 18 are used as the displacement detectors, but other types of displacement detectors can be used as long as they can accurately detect the unevenness of the surface of the rail 8. May be adopted. However, since it is meaningless if the amount of irregularities on the surface of the rail 8 changes due to the data detection, a non-contact type displacement detector is preferably used in the present invention.

The computer device 19 having the rail condition analyzing / evaluating means 20 can be freely installed and removed from the traverser 1. Therefore, a notebook personal computer can be used as the computer device 19.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, the non-contact type displacement detector detects the amount of unevenness on the rail surface, and based on this detection, the rail condition analyzing / evaluating means performs the smoothness of the rail surface. And the rail replacement time is evaluated, so that rail condition analysis and evaluation can be performed easily and accurately without relying on the visual observation of highly skilled workers as in the past. become.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a main part of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of a rail state analyzing / evaluating means 20 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a traverser.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Traverser 2 Base part 3 Running wheel 3a shaft 4 Column part 5 Beam part 6 Guide roller 7 Nuclear fuel body 8 Rail 8a Gap part 9 Upper rail 10 Drive motor 10a Shaft 11 Belt member 12 Support member 13 Slide guide 14 Slide member 15 Laser displacement system (displacement detector) 16 Slide guide 17 Slide member 18 Laser displacement meter (displacement detector) 19 Computer device 20 Rail condition analysis / evaluation means

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. When a stacker crane holding a nuclear fuel body is stopped at a predetermined position while loaded with steel running wheels rotating and running on steel rails, the positioning control thereof is performed with high precision. In the traverser for transporting a nuclear fuel body, a non-contact type displacement detector which is disposed at a position facing the surface of the rail and detects the amount of irregularities on the surface of the rail, based on the detection of the displacement detector A traverser for transporting a nuclear fuel assembly, comprising: rail condition analysis / evaluation means for analyzing the smoothness of a rail surface and evaluating a rail replacement time. 2. The rail condition analysis / evaluation means is capable of correcting in advance data of a step portion between rails at a rail joint portion when analyzing the smoothness of the rail surface. The traverser for transporting a nuclear fuel body according to claim 1, characterized in that: 3. The displacement amount detector is attached to a slide guide member fixed to a traverser body, and a distance between the displacement amount detector and a rail surface is adjustable. 3. The traverser for transporting a nuclear fuel body according to 2. 4. The nuclear fuel according to claim 1, wherein the displacement amount detector is disposed at two positions, a front portion and a rear portion, of the traverser main body. Traverser for body transport.