PCs Control Welding of Nuclear Fuel Rod Spacers

摘要

To ensure that robots safely weld components for a nuclear reactor requires monitoring and control beyond what typical technologies can offer. Advanced Nuclear Fuels (ANF) GmbH, based in Karlstein, Germany, commissioned assembly and micro-assembly technology supplier Rohwedder AG to build a state-of-the-art welding plant to produce steel grids for use as fuel rod spacers in BWR (boiling water reactor) or PWR (pressurized water reactor) nuclear plants. Critical requirements for the plant were high welding precision and accuracy coupled with high speed. During the welding process, up to 8,000 parameters must be transferred in a cycle time under 1 second for each weld point. Rohwedder chose a PC-based PLC (often referred to as a programmable automation controller or PAC) and motion control technologies from Beckhoff to handle this process.