Apparatus for displacing a sensor into a tube and automatically returning it

US4389611A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES · FR

Inventors

• Michel Pigeon · Les Ulis, FR
• Claude Vienot · Fontenay-sous-Bois, FR
• Robert Saglio · Antony, FR

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 25, 1980
• Grant date: Jun 21, 1983
• Expiry date: Sep 25, 2000

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01N27/902
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An apparatus for sending a sensor, such as an eddy current sensor, into a condenser, heat exchanger or steam generator tube. The apparatus first sends the sensor, which is attached to a cable, into the tube by means of a pressurized fluid which pushes the sensor along tube interior. At the extreme of the sensor's travel into the tube, a first ferrule attached to the rear of the cable blocks a first hydraulic passage in the apparatus. By virtue of slidable control pistons in the apparatus, this blocking cuts off the pushing pressure behind the sensor and then causes wheels to frictionally engage the cable to pull the sensor back to its starting position. At this time, another ferrule, carried near the sensor end of the cable, blocks a second hydraulic passage to thereby disengage the wheels from the cable. The cycle of (1) sensor pushed into the tube (2) sensor withdrawn from the tube, is now complete.