Wall Climbing And Pipe Crawler Robots For Nozzle Weld Inspection Inside Nuclear Pressure Vessels

This paper describes the design and development of a NDT robotic solution to test circumferential welds located inside pipe nozzles at a distance of 700mm from the inside walls of nuclear pressure vessels. These welds are currently inspected using very large robot arms that are taken into the containment area and assembled. This is a time consuming operation that exposes operators to radiation. A preferred solution is to develop a light weight and compact robot that can be carried into the containment area and inserted into a pressure vessel using an overhead crane. The crane is then removed and used for other tasks. The robot must then be operated to accomplish the weld inspection task in all the pipe nozzles located in the pressure vessel.