Automatic Magnetic Particle Inspection System for the Bracket Welds of Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant Pressure Vessel

Abstract

The present work refers to the welding inspection of the brackets of Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant´s Pressure Vessel (RPV) using the wet fluorescent magnetic particles technique (MT). Due to limited access and high radiation levels in the inspection area, it was necessary to automate the testing and use non conventional magnetization techniques. This paper describes the design and implementation of an automated inspection device and the tests carried out on the mock-up to set up the system. Also, magnetization techniques used are described, explaining in detail the non conventional technique of magnetization by current plates and the use of magnetic field concentrators to increase the field values in the area of interest. Finally, the device mounted on the RPV, used to inspect the bracket´s weld, and the results achieved from the inspection are shown.

An automatic magnetic particle inspection system for detecting defects in mooring chains

“…Usually, when the working environment is in a poor and dangerous condition, or there are heavy workloads, an automatic inspection system needs to be specially designed to replace the manual inspection [5][6][7][8] . To the best of our knowledge, an automatic non-destructive testing system for mooring chains has not been developed, due to the difficult alignments of probe location and complicated curved surfaces.…”