JP2668614B2 - Connector bank mechanism of roll-in rack system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connector bank mechanism in a roll-in rack system, in which a large number of pipe joints can be automatically adjusted in a lump and connected simultaneously. This technique is a pipe connection mechanism that is particularly useful when remote pipe assembly is required, such as a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to easily and surely maintain equipment and facilities such as nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities, application of a completely remote maintenance type roll-in rack system is being studied. In this roll-in rack system, as schematically shown in FIG. 7, a rack (carriage) 14 on which equipment is mounted is hung on a rail 12 installed on a cell floor 10 and horizontally moved on the rail 12. This is a system for fixing to a beam provided on the cell wall 16 at a predetermined position. The rack side pipe and the cell wall side pipe are connected by a rack side connector bank 18 and a wall side connector bank 19 in which pipe joints are arranged.

In a conventional connector bank mechanism, piping in which a male piping joint is welded is arranged on the rack side, and piping in which a female piping joint is welded is arranged on the cell wall side. A configuration has been studied in which one connector bank is fixed and the other connector bank is movable, and a plurality of bolts for positioning are provided on the side surface of the movable connector bank. In that case, by manipulating a tool such as a ratchet wrench with a manipulator to rotate a plurality of bolts for alignment, change the position and orientation of the movable connector bank, and align the connector banks, Adjustment is performed so that the joint surfaces of the corresponding male and female pipe joints match.

[0004]

However, in the conventional device, the coarse adjustment of the positions of the pipe joints to be connected can be performed by the connector bank, but the fine adjustments must be performed for each individual pipe joint. Moreover, in the conventional device, the minimum space required for the manipulator to enter between the racks is secured, and it is extremely difficult to adjust the position of the connector bank by operating the ratchet wrench or the like. Met. Therefore, maintenance of equipment and facilities by remote control is a very difficult task, requires skill, and takes time.

An object of the present invention is to make it possible to collectively and reliably perform positioning adjustment of a large number of pipe joints provided on the rack side and the wall side, thereby facilitating maintenance work of equipment and facilities by remote control. An object of the present invention is to provide a connector bank mechanism for such a roll-in rack system.

[0006]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a roll-in rack system in which a rack is hung on a rail installed on a floor, horizontally moved on the rail, and fixed to a wall. And a pipe connection mechanism for connecting. In the present invention, a large number of butt-fixed mechanical pipe joints are aligned and fixed in a row on the connector mounting plate to form a connector bank on the rack side and the wall side, and guide pins are provided on one of the rack-side and wall-side connector banks. Attach,
A guide hole is provided at the other opposite position so that the guide pin just fits, and when the rack rolls in, the connector banks are automatically positioned along the taper of the guide pin so that the joint surface of each pipe joint is Configure to automatically match all at once. A plurality of sets of guide pins and guide holes are provided. Each guide pin has a tapered tip, and the guide hole has a shape such that the base end of the guide pin fits exactly.

Here, it is preferable that the guide pins are provided so as to project from both ends of the wall-side connector bank, and guide holes are provided at both ends of the rack-side connector bank. A TRU joint is suitable as a fixed-butt type mechanical piping joint of both connector banks.

[0008]

When the rack is rolled in, the guide pins of one connector bank enter the guide holes of the other connector bank. At that time, since both connector banks are automatically guided and adjusted in position along the taper of the tip of the guide pin, the corresponding pipe joints of both connector banks are accurately positioned and attached in advance, respectively. The fine adjustment is completed automatically in a lump. In the case of TRU joints, the seal connection by metal touch is completed by tightening each clamp with only one bolt.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a connector bank mechanism according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a roll-in rack system incorporating the same. A in FIG.
7C are assembly drawings of the connector bank mechanism.

As shown in FIG. 2, the rack 30 is hung on a rail installed on the floor, moved horizontally on the rail, and fixed to a beam 32 on the cell wall. Various equipment is mounted on the rack 30, and a number of pipes 34 are provided. Although not shown, a large number of pipes are disposed on the cell wall side through cell wall penetrating plugs. FIG. 1 is an enlarged view of portion a of FIG. Such a connector bank is
Usually, 6 to 8 locations (a portion indicated by a mesh and a symbol b in FIG. 2) are provided for each rack. Therefore, the number of pipes is extremely large, and therefore, it is important to arrange the pipe joints at a pitch as narrow as possible.

As shown in FIG. 1, the connector bank includes a wall-side connector bank 40 and a rack-side connector bank 42. And many pipes on the rack side and wall side are T
It enables simultaneous simultaneous connection by remote control via the RU joint.

The TRU joint is a TRU (transuranium: abbreviated as transuranic element) recovery facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States, which enables remote connection of pipes and makes the space occupied by pipe joints compact. It is a butt-fixed mechanical pipe joint that was developed in consideration of the above. Unlike ordinary flange type pipe fittings,
No packing is used for sealing. This TR
As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the U joint is a male ferrule 2
0, a female ferrule 22 and a block portion 24. A male ferrule 20 and a female ferrule 22 are welded to the ends of both pipes to be connected. The block portion 24 has a pedestal 26 for fixing the male ferrule 20 and the female ferrule 22.
And a bolt 29 and a clamp 29 for holding the male ferrule 20. By tightening the bolt 28,
The clamp 29 presses the male ferrule 20 against the female ferrule 22. Thereby, the inclined (tapered) portions 20a and 22a of the joint surface between the male ferrule 20 and the female ferrule 22 are formed.
Touches and keeps the seal by metal touch. As described above, since the sealing property is maintained by the metal touch, there is a problem that even if the abutting position is slightly shifted, leakage of the fluid flowing inside occurs.

In this embodiment, a pipe formed by welding a male ferrule 20 of a TRU joint is arranged in a rack-side connector bank, and a female ferrule 2 of a TRU joint is arranged in a wall-side connector bank.
The welded pipes 2 are arranged, the pedestal 26 is fixed on the female ferrule side, and the clamp 29 is provided on the male ferrule side.

In the present invention, a guide pin is attached to one of the wall-side and rack-side connector banks, and a guide hole into which the guide pin is fitted is provided in the other connector bank so that the connector banks guide each other when the rack rolls in. The position is automatically adjusted along the taper. In this embodiment, guide pins 44 project from both ends of the wall-side connector bank 40, and correspondingly, guide holes 46 are provided at both ends of the rack-side connector bank 42.
The both guide pins 44 have tapered tips to facilitate fitting, and the guide holes 46 have dimensions and shapes so that the base ends of the guide pins 44 fit exactly, thereby improving the positioning accuracy.

The wall-side connector bank 40 is composed of the guide pins 44, a guide pin fixing block 50, a TRU joint block 52, a connector mounting plate 54, and the like. The guide pin fixing block 50 and the TRU joint block portion 52 are fixed to the connector mounting plate 54, and a groove is formed in the mounting portion with high precision to ensure dimensional accuracy between the blocks. In addition, the contact surfaces of the guide pin fixing block 50, the TRU joint block portion 52, and the connector mounting plate 54 are mechanically finished to ensure dimensional accuracy.

The rack-side connector bank 42 comprises a connector mounting plate 60, a pipe mounting plate 62, a pipe retainer 64, a pipe support 66, a guide hole plate 68, and a pipe 72 in which a male ferrule 70 is welded. The pipe mounting plate 62 and the guide hole plate 68 are fixed to the connector mounting plate 60. The pipe 72, to which the male ferrule 70 is welded, is fixed to the pipe mounting plate 62 by the pipe retainer 64 and the pipe support 66. Similar to the wall-side connector bank 40, the surface necessary to ensure dimensional accuracy is machined and machined. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a dedicated jig 80 is used to mechanically finish the surface 66a of the pipe support 66 that contacts the pipe mounting plate 62. A fluid of about 60 ° C. circulates in the pipe, which causes thermal stress. By bending and holding the end of the pipe 70 in an L-shape, the thermal stress is reduced.

With the above structure, during roll-in operation,
The positioning guide pins 44 attached to the wall-side connector bank 40 are fitted into the positioning guide holes 46 provided in the rack-side connector bank 42, so that they are attached to the respective connector banks 40, 42. The female ferrule of the TRU joint of the wall-side piping and the male ferrule of the TRU joint of the rack-side piping are automatically adjusted to each other, so that a large number of TRU joints can be fine-tuned at once. Because the mating surfaces of the male ferrule and female ferrule of each TRU joint match precisely,
The pipe connection is completed only by tightening one bolt each.

In the above embodiment, two guide pins are provided in the wall-side connector bank and two guide holes are provided in the rack-side connector bank. Conversely, two guide holes are provided in the wall-side connector bank. , 2 in the connector bank on the rack side
A book guide pin may be provided, or a guide pin and a guide hole may be provided in each of the wall-side and rack-side connector banks. It is also possible to arrange male ferrules on the wall side and female ferrules on the rack side.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the positioning adjustment of a large number of pipe joints provided on the rack side and the wall side can be performed collectively and reliably and automatically. In addition, an operating tool such as a ratchet wrench is not required, which facilitates maintenance work of equipment and facilities by remote control using a manipulator, and can greatly reduce the working time. Since the butt-fixed mechanical pipe joint is used as the pipe joint, the connection is completed by tightening one bolt, so that the connection workability is extremely good and the pipe joints can be arranged side by side at a narrow interval (pitch). Therefore, even if the number of pipes is very large, it can be sufficiently handled.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a connector bank mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a roll-in rack system incorporating the same.

FIG. 3 is an assembly view of the connector bank mechanism.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of an assembly jig.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of a TRU joint.

FIG. 6 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a TRU joint.

FIG. 7 is a schematic explanatory diagram of a roll-in rack system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 40 Wall-side connector bank 42 Rack-side connector bank 44 Guide pin 46 Guide hole 52 Block portion of TRU joint 54 Connector mounting plate 60 Connector mounting plate 70 Male ferrule of TRU joint 72 Piping

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A roll-in rack system in which a rack is hung down on rails installed on a floor and horizontally moved on rails to be fixed to a wall, and a pipe connection mechanism for connecting rack-side pipes to wall-side pipes by pipe joints . In the above, the pipe joint is a female ferrule connected to one end of the wall side pipe.
Is held by the pedestal and is connected to one end of the rack side piping.
The ferrule is removable from the pedestal and can be attached to the male
Clamps that hold down the ferrules
Fix to the pedestal with bolts that move forward and backward parallel to the central axis,
By tightening the bolt, the clamp is
A mechanism for pressing the ferrule joint surface against the female ferrule joint surface
A fixed butt type mechanical piping joint having a plurality of bases each holding a female ferrule,
Align and fix in a row on the connector mounting plate
And tank, rack-side pipe connecting the male ferrule in each tip
Is bent at an intermediate position of the pipe near the tip to make it L-shaped.
Minutes at the free end, and
And align and fix it in a single row on the
And a guide pin having a tapered tip end is attached to one of the rack-side and wall-side connector banks, and a guide hole having a shape into which the guide pin base end is fitted is provided on the other end, and a plurality of guide pins are provided. With the combination of guide holes, the connector banks are automatically aligned along the taper of the guide pins when the rack rolls in, the joint surfaces of each pipe joint are butted together, and each
A connector bank mechanism for a roll-in rack system that is connected by tightening the bolts . 2. The mechanism according to claim 1, wherein guide pins are provided at both ends of the wall-side connector bank, and guide holes are provided at both ends of the rack-side connector bank. 3. The mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the fixed butted mechanical pipe joints of both connector banks are TRU joints.