Aquila Nuclear Engineering Ltd, part of the Calder Group, the £165m pan European engineering group, have recently been awarded 3 contracts from NNL for the design and build of rigs to be used with shielded caves. These rigs and equipment include:-
A Residual Stress Rig
This system is used to accurately bond strain gauge assemblies onto irradiated components, employing a master slave manipulator (MSM) within a shielded cave. Using NNLâs functional requirements as the design input, Aquila presented concept designs, verified process requirements, developed engineering schemes and will take this onto manufacture, assembly and test.
Analysis Breakdown Equipment
Aquila is developing a range of equipment to receive and process irradiated components to allow for the size reduction, preparation and inspection. The equipment consists of a XY gantry complete with a Z drive slitting saw machining head, a Z drive and rotation unit and a large cut off saw. The equipment is being developed in conjunction with NNL in order to achieve the best integrated package of works.
XY Hydraulic Press
Aquila is modifying a proprietary hydraulic press to be operated by a master slave manipulator (MSM). The equipment receives a component and via remotely controlled X and Y drives, accurately positions the component to allow samples to be punched out at specific locations for further inspection and testing.
Nick Clark – Senior Buyer at NNL said It was obvious from the tender submissions that the team at Aquila had read and understood our functional requirements and converted these requirements into a feasible, fully priced design solution at the bid stage
Dave Barker – CEO of Aquila said These contract awards were another great example of Aquila using our depth of remote handling knowledge in the nuclear industry during the tendering stage. Design during
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