Nuclear components are often extremely large and cumbersome, often requiring specialist lifting and gantry equipment to manoeuvre materials and part machined components through the manufacturing process while minimising risk to employees, machinery and programme delivery.
Rolls-Royce facilities are designed to handle large components incorporating a range of lifting, turning, milling, boring, drilling, cutting, welding and finishing equipment.
Often nuclear components require specialist welding, preparation, cladding, testing and modelling techniques. Rolls-Royce utilises the latest welding technologies including;
- Submerged arc welding (SAW) and cladding
- Gas-tungsten arc welding (GTAW)
- Plasma arc welding
- Orbital GTAW
- Laser beam welding(LBW)
- Orbital LBW
- Gas-metal arc welding and cladding
- Flux-cored arc welding, joining and cladding
- Electro-slag strip cladding (ESSC)
Rolls-Royce has been at the forefront of weld innovation and technique development for many years. We have the capability to join materials with a sectional thickness of between 0.5mm through to 300mm in Ferretic steels, Austentic, Ferritic and Martensitic stainless steels, and solid solution strengthened Nickel based alloys.
Coupled with the latest modelling software and processes, Rolls-Royce can predict joint shrinkage and as-deposited residual stresses in single and multiple weldments.
The heat treatment of ferretic steels and martnesitic stainless steels helps to optimise the durability of nuclear components during operation of nuclear plant. Rolls-Royce has a range of heat treatment procedures and processes at its disposal during manufacture including;
- Preheat treatment (radiant, gas, infrared and induction heaters)
- Post weld heat treatment
After the final finishing phases of manufacture all nuclear components are subjected to strict quality and non-destructive test procedures to ensure compliance with ASME codes governing the manufacture and supply of nuclear components. All Rolls-Royce components are tested using a range of in-house techniques and specialist procedures including;
- Radiography
- Ultrasonic
- Dye Penetrant
- Magnetic particle
- Eddy Current
- Visual inspection
- Hydro testing
