Tubular gage for a liquid-metal-cooled fast breeder reactor

US4028811A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• The United States of America as represented by the United States Energy Research and Development Administration · US

Inventors

• Ernest Hutter · Wilmette, US
• Leroy A. Tuma · Naperville, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 2, 1976
• Grant date: Jun 14, 1977
• Expiry date: Mar 2, 1996

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01B5/12
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Spring-loaded plungers are arranged about a housing for insertion into a polygonal tube, one plunger for each side of the tube. Each plunger has a locking cam and sliding wedge mechanism which can overcome the spring force associated with the plunger and lock it in any position. The wedges are operated by a rod moveable axially in the housing. Several housings with their associated plungers can be stacked. The stack is lowered into the polygonal tube with all of the plungers locked in a fully inward position. When the stack is in the tube, each wedge is moved to release its locking cam, allowing each of the plungers to spring outward against an inner side of the tube. Each housing will thus gage the internal dimensions of the tube at its elevation. The plungers are locked in position, the entire stack is rotated to bring the plungers into the corners described by the intersections of the flat sides, and the stack is removed from the tube whereupon the dimensions across opposite locked plungers may be read by a micrometer.