You can’t exactly drop somebody into an underground tank filled with thousands of gallons of radioactive sludge and have them wipe it clean. But at the largest nuclear waste cleanup project in U.S. history, a smart machine is on the job. The Mobile Arm Retrieval System (MARS) is a robotic arm that officials hope will speed up the process and dramatically cut down the costs of radioactive waste cleanup.
The site of this high-tech cleanup is the Department of Energy’s 586-square-mile Hanford site, located in the desert of southeastern Washington state. The site, established in 1943 as a plutonium-producing hub for the Manhattan Project, houses nine former nuclear reactors and their associated processing facilities used during World War II and throughout the Cold War to build America’s nuclear arsenal. That process produced billions of gallons of liquid waste and millions of tons of solid waste, which the DOE has been cleaning up since 1989.
There are 149 underground single-shell tanks at Hanford housing radioactive sludge, according to Kent Smith, the single-shell retrieval and closure manager for DOE contractor Washington River Protection Solutions. Since 1999, crews have used the "modified sluicing" technique that pumps in liquefied waste to push the sludge toward the center of the tanks, where a central pump sucks it up and transfers it to a double-shell tank for safer storage. However, the sluicing machine hasn’t budged the toughest of the sludge, often leaving more than 10 percent of the radioactive goop inside the tanks.
But MARS, a fully maneuverable robotic arm that Smith says began working on Sept. 29, can reach nearly 40 feet into a tank and sluice 90 gallons a minute at 100 psi. That’s its normal speed; at high pressure, MARS can fire 20 gallons a minute at up to 5000 psi, attacking the gunk that traditional sluicing leaves behind.
Smith says the articulating knuckle on MARS has a telescoping ability that lets the unit reach every portion of the tank, top to bottom, to clean out the 253,000 gallons of waste left inside. "Telescoping 37 feet out to the edge of the tank, the arm can move up and down off a pivot point," Smith says. "At the end effecter, a nozzle system can rotate in all directions. There is a lot of flexibility to get to the waste itself, something lacking in the current system." The operating head has multiple low- and high-pressure spray nozzles that hydraulically "rake" waste to a central pump. And by blasting liquid waste already retrieved from Hanford’s tanks, MARS can loosen the compacted sludge without contaminating more water.
So far, one of the biggest challenges in using MARS has been just getting the 20,000-pound steel and hose contraption into the tank—the hatch was too small. Crews remotely cut a 172-inch-circumference hole in the concrete, using a pressurized mix to methodically etch away the 15- to 20-inch-thick concrete and rebar. The slow and steady stream ensured the debris remained miniscule and easily removable by MARS.
The robotic arm is made primarily of steel hydraulic hoses and EPDM (ethylene, propylene, diene, and polymethylene) hose. All the movement is driven by a hydraulic power unit weighing 96,000 pounds and located on the top of the tank system, which also ensures a constant tension on the hosing system to keep tangles out of the C-107 process. One person operates the arm from a trailer over 50 yards away in an upwind, uncontaminated area; another monitors the flow rates; a third watches the hydraulics powering MARS and a fourth checks the flow into the retrieval tank.
By about three weeks into the MARS project, crews had cleared 27 percent of the waste out of C-107, the first tank in which it has been used. It’s already exceeded the performance of ordinary sluicing and eliminated the need for multiple cleaning methods for each tank, cutting millions of dollars and months of time from the process. The first-ever Hanford C-farm tank cleaned—C-106—cost $100 million as crews figured out the process. Now costs range between $6 million and $9 million a tank for the sluicing method. The C-107 tank will cost about $15 million to Mars, Smith says, but the equipment is reusable at least two more times. And as crews get better with the system, the cost for the next two tanks could drop to $5 million each.
MARS has proved so popular that its creators are designing a second generation bot, one that replaces the sluicing of liquid with a vacuum system. That could come in handy at Hanford: Of the 149 tanks, 67 are known or suspected leakers, and regulators have said the leaky tanks can’t handle the thousands of gallons of liquid required to loosen the sludge, for fear that MARS’ power would blast radioactive contamination through the leaks. The new system is undergoing final testing in preparation to deploy into tank C-105 late in 2012.
Of course, once the MARS robots collect all this radioactive sludge, it has to go somewhere. The DOE aims to turn Hanford’s 56 million gallons of liquid waste into vitrified glass, through a process that heats and blends the waste with molten glass, then pours the mixture into stainless steel canisters for storage. The DOE is building four major concrete facilities—a pretreatment center, low-activity waste vitrification site, a high-level waste vitrification site, and an analytical laboratory—and about 20 support facilities that include operations and maintenance buildings, utilities, and office space.
"The vit plant will be largely self contained, functioning like a small city," says Gary Olsen, DOE area project manager. The project kicked off in 2001 and is nearing its final design deadline of 2013. Construction will wrap in 2016, and the plant will be operational by 2019. By then, the MARS project should be even more refined, and ready to take on the huge task of cleaning up the remaining tanks—there are 136 still not full clean, Smith says. "I think MARS would be used at the majority of the tanks," he says. "We are pretty excited about this. We think it’s a new day for retrieval."
2011年11月7日星期一
2011年9月27日星期二
First look: Kinesis Crosslight Pro6
This was the coded phone message road.cc got from Kinesis UK to let us know that their new disc-braked Crosslight Pro 6 that we snuck a look at the prototype of a few months ago was finally finished, in production, built up and ready for an exclusive look.
The Pro 6 is a cyclo-cross frame making full use of the UCI ruling allowing disc-brakes to be used in CX competition as it’s designed for discs, and discs only, with no purist-friendly cantilever mounts to be seen. Although its main objective is for racing it still comes with a full compliment of mudguard and rack mounts, and twin bottle bosses for off-duty options, but opposed to the majority of ‘cyclo-cross’ bikes vajazzled with accessory mounts that come with polite pedaling angles and handle a bit slack-jawed, touring bikes and hybrids in a trendy ‘cross bike guise if you will, the Pro 6 is a set of tubes with a fast race-specific geometry, something Crosslight are very good at with a long and proven ‘cross winning history.
The guys at Kinesis are convinced that discs are the way forward for cyclo-cross, allowing consistent braking throughout the race while your competitors cantilever pads get worn away by the grit and grime, leading to cheeky position grabbing out-braking into corners and of course your expensive deep section carbon rims also last longer.
The Kinesium frame, an enhanced 6000 series aluminium alloy – claimed to be 25% stronger than 6061 at the same weight level – has been designed specifically with cyclo-cross racing in mind. Kinesis reason that cyclo-cross is the only cycle sport where the rider deliberately touches the frame so have concentrated on the tactile aspects of the Pro6. The downtube isn’t oversized and doesn’t have any on-trend funky tube profiling, making it easier to grab with a muddy carrying hand and there’s less tube area for heavy wet mud to stick to, but to keep the strength up there’s a gusset at the head-tube junction.
The ‘Ergo2′ top-tube slopes only ever so slightly, leaving room aplenty inside the frame triangle for a shoulder, and the underside is flattened for comfier carrying, with the transition from flat to round kept fluid so there’s no sharp edges to dig into a shoulder-blade. Cables run along the right-hand side of the top-tube, away from your neck when carrying and stops are designed to take a full outer cable for maximum mud and water resistance or a hydraulic hose.
Chain and seatstays are straight for direct power transfer – a cyclo-cross bike isn’t meant to be comfortable – the right-hand chainstay is Kinesis’s ‘A-Stay’ and rear clearance looks good despite the chainstay bridge. The bottom-bracket is somewhere between a traditionally high CX height, a hang-over from the days when racers wanted ground clearance for a dangling toe-clip and strap, and a low road BB height as Kinesis figure you still need some pedal clearance for ruts and roots. The tapered head-tube has been kept short and low because ‘cross racers don’t want a star-gazey front end: it’s an hour’s hard race, not a genteel sportive.
The Pro 6 comes in Metallic Black, Tech White or Deep Red colour choices, each with a matching fork, and even the subtly metallic paint has thinking behind it, Kinesis say that as there are more layers of paint needed to create the effect it means the finish is tougher and more resistant to the pointy elbows and marker posts of ‘cross racing. Showing further thought the supplied bottle-cage and rack bolts are shallow domed rather than the usual proud allen bolts that can rip into a lycra jersey, or skin. The seat-tube accepts a 27.2 seatpost, because it’s what’s most likely to be in people’s shed, fitting in with the “built up from spares” ethos of most CX bikes and the bottom-bracket is threaded, flying in the face of the plague of integrated BB standards for the very same reason.
The Pro 6 frame comes with a 'CXD' full-carbon 1-1/8">1.5" tapered headtube fork weighing 500g. The fork has a post-mount for the disc, is eyeleted at the dropouts and rear of the crown and neatly includes disc-hose clip on the left-hand blade.
Handling the tricky lever-cable-to-hydraulic-caliper braking duties is the TRP Parabox unit that hides under the stem, feel at the lever was reassuringly positive, but the bike couldn’t be ridden to get an idea of how the brake felt on the move, or on the stop, as it had no pedals and more essentially the tubs weren’t actually glued on, which was a shame as it’s the first time a Parabox unit has appeared on a bike in the UK.
You’ll be able to see this sweet build Pro 6 this weekend at the Cycle Show in the NEC, where you can also stroke it’s new Reynolds Assault carbon CX disc wheels for the first time as well as sniff the bike’s new Oval saddle and rub the tread off the new FMB Super Mud tyres.
The Pro 6 is a cyclo-cross frame making full use of the UCI ruling allowing disc-brakes to be used in CX competition as it’s designed for discs, and discs only, with no purist-friendly cantilever mounts to be seen. Although its main objective is for racing it still comes with a full compliment of mudguard and rack mounts, and twin bottle bosses for off-duty options, but opposed to the majority of ‘cyclo-cross’ bikes vajazzled with accessory mounts that come with polite pedaling angles and handle a bit slack-jawed, touring bikes and hybrids in a trendy ‘cross bike guise if you will, the Pro 6 is a set of tubes with a fast race-specific geometry, something Crosslight are very good at with a long and proven ‘cross winning history.
The guys at Kinesis are convinced that discs are the way forward for cyclo-cross, allowing consistent braking throughout the race while your competitors cantilever pads get worn away by the grit and grime, leading to cheeky position grabbing out-braking into corners and of course your expensive deep section carbon rims also last longer.
The Kinesium frame, an enhanced 6000 series aluminium alloy – claimed to be 25% stronger than 6061 at the same weight level – has been designed specifically with cyclo-cross racing in mind. Kinesis reason that cyclo-cross is the only cycle sport where the rider deliberately touches the frame so have concentrated on the tactile aspects of the Pro6. The downtube isn’t oversized and doesn’t have any on-trend funky tube profiling, making it easier to grab with a muddy carrying hand and there’s less tube area for heavy wet mud to stick to, but to keep the strength up there’s a gusset at the head-tube junction.
The ‘Ergo2′ top-tube slopes only ever so slightly, leaving room aplenty inside the frame triangle for a shoulder, and the underside is flattened for comfier carrying, with the transition from flat to round kept fluid so there’s no sharp edges to dig into a shoulder-blade. Cables run along the right-hand side of the top-tube, away from your neck when carrying and stops are designed to take a full outer cable for maximum mud and water resistance or a hydraulic hose.
Chain and seatstays are straight for direct power transfer – a cyclo-cross bike isn’t meant to be comfortable – the right-hand chainstay is Kinesis’s ‘A-Stay’ and rear clearance looks good despite the chainstay bridge. The bottom-bracket is somewhere between a traditionally high CX height, a hang-over from the days when racers wanted ground clearance for a dangling toe-clip and strap, and a low road BB height as Kinesis figure you still need some pedal clearance for ruts and roots. The tapered head-tube has been kept short and low because ‘cross racers don’t want a star-gazey front end: it’s an hour’s hard race, not a genteel sportive.
The Pro 6 comes in Metallic Black, Tech White or Deep Red colour choices, each with a matching fork, and even the subtly metallic paint has thinking behind it, Kinesis say that as there are more layers of paint needed to create the effect it means the finish is tougher and more resistant to the pointy elbows and marker posts of ‘cross racing. Showing further thought the supplied bottle-cage and rack bolts are shallow domed rather than the usual proud allen bolts that can rip into a lycra jersey, or skin. The seat-tube accepts a 27.2 seatpost, because it’s what’s most likely to be in people’s shed, fitting in with the “built up from spares” ethos of most CX bikes and the bottom-bracket is threaded, flying in the face of the plague of integrated BB standards for the very same reason.
The Pro 6 frame comes with a 'CXD' full-carbon 1-1/8">1.5" tapered headtube fork weighing 500g. The fork has a post-mount for the disc, is eyeleted at the dropouts and rear of the crown and neatly includes disc-hose clip on the left-hand blade.
Handling the tricky lever-cable-to-hydraulic-caliper braking duties is the TRP Parabox unit that hides under the stem, feel at the lever was reassuringly positive, but the bike couldn’t be ridden to get an idea of how the brake felt on the move, or on the stop, as it had no pedals and more essentially the tubs weren’t actually glued on, which was a shame as it’s the first time a Parabox unit has appeared on a bike in the UK.
You’ll be able to see this sweet build Pro 6 this weekend at the Cycle Show in the NEC, where you can also stroke it’s new Reynolds Assault carbon CX disc wheels for the first time as well as sniff the bike’s new Oval saddle and rub the tread off the new FMB Super Mud tyres.
2011年8月23日星期二
Eaton Products Help Power World's Largest Mobile Cone Rock Crusher
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. … Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation today announced that Brightwater Manufacturing Ltd. of Christchurch, New Zealand, is equipping the world’s largest mobile cone-type rock crusher, the TC1885C mobile crusher, with Eaton products. The TC1885C is used in rock quarries
Onboard the 140-ton machine are Eaton® heavy-duty Series 1 pumps that power track drive and conveyors, Vickers® screw-in cartridge valves for conveyor controls, and Aeroquip® hose and fittings for all fluid-conveying arteries. At the heart of the rock crusher is a sophisticated control system equipped with Eaton’s comprehensive F(x)™ electrohydraulic architecture.
The hydraulic system was designed and supplied by Scarlett Hydraulics Ltd., New Zealand’s largest full line Eaton distributor.
Eaton’s electrohydraulic architecture gives new capabilities to Brightwater rock crushers, which traditionally have been equipped with Eaton pumps, motors, valves, and fluid conveyance products. Eaton EFX 1624 and 1640 controllers sniff diagnostic information from the TC1885C engine’s CAN network, enabling Eaton’s accompanying CONTROL (F)x® programming software to monitor and protect the engine and hydraulics, plus ensure operator safety. Adding controllers to its Eaton product lineup has enabled Brightwater to move closer to standardizing on Eaton components and a single-source hydraulics provider.
Eaton’s Hydraulics business is a worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of a comprehensive line of reliable, high-efficiency hydraulic hose systems and components for use in mobile and stationary applications. Mobile and stationary markets include agriculture, alternative energy, construction, forestry, manufacturing, material handling, mining, oil and gas, processing, transportation and utility equipment. Eaton’s Hydraulics Group provides customer-driven solutions under product names such as Aeroquip®, Boston®, Char-Lynn®, Eaton®, Hydrokraft®, Hydrowa®, Hydro-Line®, Integrated Hydraulics®, Synflex®, Vickers®, Walterscheid™, and Weatherhead®.
Eaton Corporation is a diversified power management company with 2010 sales of $13.7 billion. Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2011, Eaton is a global technology leader in electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution and control; hydraulics components, systems and services for industrial and mobile equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulics and pneumatic systems for commercial and military use; and truck and automotive drivetrain and powertrain systems for performance, fuel economy and safety. Eaton has approximately 73,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 150 countries.
Onboard the 140-ton machine are Eaton® heavy-duty Series 1 pumps that power track drive and conveyors, Vickers® screw-in cartridge valves for conveyor controls, and Aeroquip® hose and fittings for all fluid-conveying arteries. At the heart of the rock crusher is a sophisticated control system equipped with Eaton’s comprehensive F(x)™ electrohydraulic architecture.
The hydraulic system was designed and supplied by Scarlett Hydraulics Ltd., New Zealand’s largest full line Eaton distributor.
Eaton’s electrohydraulic architecture gives new capabilities to Brightwater rock crushers, which traditionally have been equipped with Eaton pumps, motors, valves, and fluid conveyance products. Eaton EFX 1624 and 1640 controllers sniff diagnostic information from the TC1885C engine’s CAN network, enabling Eaton’s accompanying CONTROL (F)x® programming software to monitor and protect the engine and hydraulics, plus ensure operator safety. Adding controllers to its Eaton product lineup has enabled Brightwater to move closer to standardizing on Eaton components and a single-source hydraulics provider.
Eaton’s Hydraulics business is a worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of a comprehensive line of reliable, high-efficiency hydraulic hose systems and components for use in mobile and stationary applications. Mobile and stationary markets include agriculture, alternative energy, construction, forestry, manufacturing, material handling, mining, oil and gas, processing, transportation and utility equipment. Eaton’s Hydraulics Group provides customer-driven solutions under product names such as Aeroquip®, Boston®, Char-Lynn®, Eaton®, Hydrokraft®, Hydrowa®, Hydro-Line®, Integrated Hydraulics®, Synflex®, Vickers®, Walterscheid™, and Weatherhead®.
Eaton Corporation is a diversified power management company with 2010 sales of $13.7 billion. Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2011, Eaton is a global technology leader in electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution and control; hydraulics components, systems and services for industrial and mobile equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulics and pneumatic systems for commercial and military use; and truck and automotive drivetrain and powertrain systems for performance, fuel economy and safety. Eaton has approximately 73,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 150 countries.
订阅：
博文 (Atom)