FR2610546A1 - Sorting device which can be used in nuclear installations - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for handling and sorting various articles or objects, in particular laundry, and which can be used in nuclear installations. According to the present invention, this device consists, on the one hand, of a framework comprising means 8 for receiving the articles to be sorted, these reception means 8 supplying means 9 for storing the sorted articles; on the other hand, of an enclosure of the "glove box" type, with several faces, containing the framework, and comprising entry means 1 for the articles to be sorted, and exit means 12 for the sorted articles. Advantageously, it contains, in addition, a system 14 and 16 for ventilating the inside of the enclosure, which is connected to an outside ventilation circuit, and keeps the enclosure under a reduced pressure.

Description

 The present invention relates to a device for sorting various articles or objects, which is particularly useful in nuclear sites. Indeed, this device, installed in nuclear sites, makes it possible in particular to carry out the sorting of contaminated objects, or other manipulations, inside the device, from outside the device. "read precisely, it allows, installed in the laundromats of nuclear power plants, to carry out the sorting before washing of the inside of a bag of dirty linen to detect and put away the contaminated elements it contains.

 The invention provides a solution to a number of difficulties in managing the linen treated in the laundries of nuclear power plants.

 The protocol for controlling contamination of dirty laundry before washing and before reuse is as follows.

 Contaminated dirty laundry is detected upstream of the laundry itself, namely at the exit from the "controlled areas" when the staff in working clothes pass individually to the "control gantry". At this limit, if contamination is detected, the agent concerned leaves his work clothes and deposits them in repredited bags before going back to the "control portal". Otherwise, he crosses this limit and then leaves his work clothes which is only a treatment for hygiene criteria.

 The linens thus collected upstream and downstream from the "control gates" are conveyed in sealed bags, differentiated, for specific treatment in the laundromat.

 All linen treated in the laundromat is subject to a systematic radiological check at the end of the "chain" before recycling. This protocol aims to avoid, before washing, mixtures between contaminated cloths and uncontaminated cloths. It allows consistent control at the end of washing.

 It is necessary to be able to check its effectiveness in order not to run the risk of polluting a "beat", a situation which results in heavier work in the laundromat, requiring costly and difficult decontamination operations. In addition, it is useful to remove a contaminated item from a bag identified as "questionable" so as not to spread the contamination to all of the contents.

 Therefore, according to the invention, the bag-by-bag contamination is detected in the laundromat before washing. This is not a problem. On the other hand, then, the examination and the sorting of the interior of a particular bag put aside requires its opening and therefore inconvenient security conditions in a laundromat.

 The object of the present invention is in particular to propose a means for carrying out the sorting operation of the interior of a bag dubious from the point of view of radioactivity, under conventional industrial conditions for a laundromat, that is to say - say without it being necessary for the operating personnel to protect themselves by a protective suit which is impractical in this context.

To do this, the invention relates to a device for handling and sorting articles or various objects, in particular linen, useful in nuclear sites which, according to its essential characteristic, consists on the one hand, of a chassis comprising means of
reception of the items to be sorted, these reception means
tion serving means of storage of articlestriés; on the other hand, a glove box enclosure "
having several faces, confining the chassis and
comprising means for entering the articles to be sorted
and means for removing the sorted articles.

 It is indeed obvious that the application of this type of device is not limited to sorting the laundry, but also to other manipulations and to other articles, too.

 The means for receiving the articles to be sorted can consist of a table.

 Preferably, the reception means consist of an automatic conveyor system, for example a conveyor belt.

 The means for storing the sorted articles consist, for example, of mobile elements of the bag carrier trolley type disposed against the means for receiving the articles to be sorted.

 The device therefore makes it possible to introduce a bag of questionable laundry into the enclosure, then to carry out a series of operations inside the enclosure, from the outside by means of gloves and therefore without protective suit. . Once in the enclosure, we open the bag, we scatter the laundry on the conveyor belt. By means of a conventional autonomous portable radioactivity detector placed inside the enclosure, one searches for and puts away in one of the bags of the bag-carrying trolleys the objects or the elements of the Linen which caused the examination of the bag. Then we proceed to the closing of the bags of the bag-carrying trolleys when they are full, and to the exit of the trolleys.

 According to another important characteristic of the invention, a ventilation system is provided inside the enclosure connected to an external ventilation circuit and maintaining the enclosure under vacuum.

 For example, the ventilation system consists of a system of extractor hoods arranged inside the enclosure, the hoods being connected to an external ventilation circuit.

 In the laundromat, for example, the ventilation system will be connected to the general ventilation network of the laundromat. The vacuum thus created causes entrainment in the external network of possible contaminated dust particles. These could for example be found in the folds of the laundry and therefore suspended in the atmosphere when the laundry is agitated. As the enclosure is not absolutely airtight, there is a risk of contaminating the atmosphere of the premises.

 According to another characteristic of the invention, the enclosure consists of a structure which can be entirely dismantled by panel, each face comprising several panels which can be dismantled separately.

 For example, the panels are assembled on a frame structure in profiles by a system of clips, each panel being removable by simple pulling.

 The complete dismantling of the device facilitates, if necessary, its installation in situ, but also its maintenance.

 The assembly system adopted allows the user to access all the essential organs in a minimum of time.

According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the chassis comprises a treadmill and several
bag trolleys arranged against the conveyor belt
in its length, the enclosure comprises in addition to a ceiling and a floor,
- a front face directly against the carpet in
its length and an opposite, direct rear face
against the carriages, each being equipped with
flanges of gloves above the carpet and
trolleys respectively, and each flange of
glove being surmounted by a transparent panel, and
a means of entry and exit of the carriages being
provided on said rear face,
- a small side face directly against each
end of the treadmill, one of which has
a means of access to an airlock for loading the carpet
above said carpet,
the ventilation system is that the on
face of the treadmill is perforated with holes and that
two hoods are arranged inside the enclosure
respectively
- above the treadmill and carts and
- below the conveyor belt next to the carts,
the upper hood covering the entire surface of the
belt and the lower hood covering the entire
face of the enclosure under the carpet next to the carts,
each hood being connected by a sheath to a collec
outside air intake inside the lten-
girded.

 The holes provided on the surface of the belt favor the good training of dust particles, because the linen is scattered and therefore agitated on the surface of the treadmill.

 Advantageously, the means of access to the loading airlock consists of a panel on the lateral face against the end of the mat, a panel which opens in rotation around its base at the surface of the mat and has two lateral edges which make it a hopper for loading the airlock.

 Lighting can be provided in the enclosure compartment above the upper hood, which is equipped with transparent panels.

 This provides good lighting in the work area. Furthermore, the replacement, for example, of the light tubes is done without opening the hazardous compartment of the enclosure located below the upper hood. The upper hood covering the entire surface of the enclosure above the carpet, it indeed delimits two compartments.

 This characteristic, added to the installation of a drain in the lower part of the duct of the lower hood and connected to a waste water evacuation pipe, offers an additional advantage.

 In fact, where it is installed, the lighting is watertight and washing the interior of the enclosure with water between the two hoods poses no difficulty.

However, of course, the washing with hot water of this compartment between the two hoods must be carried out regularly having regard to the radioactive elements that it contained.

 To facilitate access to the work surface, the front face is inclined above the conveyor belt and the transparent panels which it comprises can slide on slides.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear in the light of the detailed description of an embodiment referring to the drawings in which
FIG. 1 represents, in perspective, an overall view of the exterior of a device according to the invention having its front face,
FIG. 2 represents a view of its front face,
FIG. 3 represents a side view in section AA of FIG. 2,
FIG. 4 represents a top view in section BB of FIG. 2,
FIG. 5 represents a view of the part of the rear face on the side of the bag-carrying carriages,
Figure 6 shows a panel with its assembly system on a frame structure in profiles.

As can be seen in the figures, the device is analyzed in two sets first of all a chassis-table (Figures 3 and 4) cons
consisting of a treadmill 8 and three door carts
bag 9 arranged along the carpet, then an enclosure (Figure 1) comprising several
sides in which the chassis-table is enclosed.

 The enclosure consists of a closed structure of the "glove box" type in that it is equipped in particular on the front (figure 2) and rear (fi gurus) sides 3 and b with gloves 4 (figures 3 and 5). The latex gloves 4 have a length of 800 mm, their frame 5 a diameter of 186 mm. On the front, the gloves are provided directly in a transparent plate 6.

On the rear face (FIG. 5), the transparent plate 7 is above the flange of the gloves. The transparent plates are in tinted plexiglass of the Altuglas type.

 As seen in Figure 3, the front plate 6 is tilted above the carpet.

The rear side allows the three bags to be closed in a confined environment on mobile supports. The rear face indeed has two sides a first panel (Figures 4 and 5) opposite the cha
riots 31, and a second panel 34 (FIG. 4) directly against the
carpet.

 The enclosure is closed laterally by two small faces (FIG. 4): a first face 33 at the end of the mat on the carriages side and a second face opposite. The second side has two sides. a pan 32 which completes closing the carriage compartment laterally with the panels 31 and 33, and a panel 35. The panel 35 (FIG. 1) comprises in its part above the surface of the conveyor belt a panel 1 for opening 'a loading hatch 2, panel which opens in rotation around its base at the level of the surface of the carpet at its end.

 Figures 2 and 4 show the location of the loading hatch above the conveyor belt before the bag-carrying carts.

 The panel 1 (Figure 1) has two side edges 36 which make it suitable in the open position to constitute a hopper for loading the laundry bags.

 In FIGS. 3 and 4, a clear distinction is made between the chassis-table which the enclosure contains with the conveyor belt 8 and three bag-carrying carriages 9 arranged along the belt, which arrive at the same height. The carriages 9 are equipped with bags 10 and surmounted by loading hoppers 11 (Figure 4).

 The treadmill is made of decontaminable material.

 The enclosure also contains a ventilation system comprising a high ventilation 14 and 15, and a low ventilation 16 and 17, relative to the conveyor belt, the carpet being perforated by holes 13.

 An upper hood 14 is in fact placed above the transparent panels 7, 6 and the flanges of gloves (FIG. 3). It covers the entire surface of the enclosure at this height. It is surmounted by a sheath 15. Similarly, a lower hood 16 is placed under the conveyor belt and covers the entire surface of the enclosure below the carpet. In its lower part, the lower hood 16 is extended by a sheath 17 which rises from the outside of the enclosure until it eventually joins the sheath of the upper hood in its upper part, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 The sheath 17 has in its lower part a drain 21 (FIG. 2). These ventilation ducts are made of stainless steel.

The upper hood has two plates
transparencies 18 (Figure 2) above which are
placed two incandescent lighting tubes 19 which are
surmounted by a box 20 thus forming a compartment
waterproof lighting above the hood above
better.

On the rear side (pan 34) is provided a
electrical control cabinet 22 with circuit breaker and
transformer (figure 4) (25A Telemechanical disconnector
type LS 1D 2531, Legrand transformer 220/24 type NFC
52210).

 On the front face (Figures 1 and 2) is provided a control panel 41 composed of an on / off switch (switched on) with indicator light, an on / off light switch (incandescent tubes 19) and a push button emergency stop.

 The conveyor belt is driven by a geared motor 29 (Leroy Sommer HLS 63E) placed under the conveyor cooperating with a transmission casing 30 and a series of drums and rollers 40 (Figures 2 and 4).

 The body of the enclosure of the device is removable by elements or panels made of stainless steel sheet metal assembled on a chassis made of stainless steel profiles 42 (FIG. 6). The sheet metal panels 24 forming skirts and flanges are assembled on a frame structure in sections 42 by a system of clips 25.

 Furthermore, the panel constituting the front in tinted altuglas 6 can slide on two slides 27 after dismantling of a lateral stainless steel rod 28 and glove boxes (FIG. 1).

 In the particular embodiment shown, the main dimensions are length = 2100 mm width = 1700 mm (open bag supports) height = 1900 mm.

 The implementation of the device according to the invention is easy to understand.

 In Figures 1 and 4 the loading lock is shown in the semi-open and open position respectively.

 The operator stands in front of the front panel (Figure 2) opposite plate 6 with gloves.

 After switching on, the operator can control the unwinding of the belt by pressing a pedal box 23 (a forward pedal, a reverse pedal). In the event of simultaneous pressure on the two pedals, an electrical safety system imposes a forward step of the belt (figure Li.

 The inclination above the carpet of the front face (figure 3) allows the operator to easily distribute the laundry and the bulk on the conveyor belt and in the tackle bags.

 The conveyor belt with motorized drive and two directions of unwinding distributes the three open hoppers on the three sliding carriages supporting empty bags (Figures 3 and 4).

 The bags are put in place by simply turning the bag over the top of the carts. The weight of the clothes is supported by the base of the trolley.

 The assembly system allows the user to quickly access all essential parts by simply pulling on the sheet metal work.

 Figure 1 makes it possible to distinguish different access panels. For example, the panel 37 allows access to the drums 40 of the conveyor belt (Figures 1 and 4). The panel 38 allows access to the geared motor 29 (Figures 1 and 2). The box 20 which constitutes the ceiling of the device allows access to the waterproof lighting (Figures 1, 2 and 3).

 On each lateral side of the device (figure 1) by removing the corresponding flange, the operator can have access to two threaded sockets. By placing shackles, four anchor points are obtained allowing total handling of the assembly. It is the panel (central element of face 35 (Figure 1)) which allows access to the handling shackles.

 In FIG. 5, there are different panels 12 for access to the carriages below the flanges of gloves on the rear face of the enclosure and which also allow them to exit.

 By sliding the inclined panel 6 of the front face on the two slides 27 after dismantling the rod 28 and the gloves, the operator has full access to the surface of the unwinding mat (Figure 1).

 The extraction air flow to be expected is 600 m3 / h. It ensures the ventilation of the table through the mesh of the conveyor belt and through the hoods of the enclosure. The ducts 16 and 17 are to be connected to an external collector of the general laundry ventilation network.

 The possible change of the two incandescent tubes 19 takes place on the upper part of the device, the box 20 being independent of the rest of the bodywork (FIG. 3).

 The general cleaning of the interior of the device is carried out by washing with hot water, by connecting a stainless steel pipe to its drain 21 in the lower part of the sheath of the lower hood. The hose is to be connected to a waste water outlet (Figure 4).

 A level adjustment of the entire device can be carried out by means of four adjustable feet 26 (Figures 2 and 3).

 Of course, the embodiment described above is not limiting.

 For example, one can provide, in fact, a provision of the carriages relative to the different carpet as well as a number of different carriages, of course.

The general external shape of the enclosure can be changed, whether it is the number of faces or their arrangements. In particular, the front face 6 will not necessarily be inclined above the treadmill.

 Similarly, the method of assembling the panels can be replaced by any known means.

 Finally, note that the ventilation system can be varied. One can provide a single upper hood, for example, the carpet is not perforated, and its surface defining with the hood a closed compartment. However, less good ventilation will be obtained.

 Other arrangements of the essential elements of the device are also possible without departing from the protective framework of the invention.

Claims (17)

 and outlet means (12) for the sorted articles.  comprising input means (1) for articles to be sorted  having several faces, confining the chassis and  articles sorted on the other hand, from an enclosure of the "glove box" type  reception (8) serving storage means (9)  reception (8) of the items to be sorted, these means of  areas, characterized in that it consists on the one hand, of a chassis comprising means of  or various objects, in particular linen, useful in nuclear sites  1. Device for handling and sorting articles  2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that it also contains a ventilation system (14 and 16) inside the enclosure connected to an external ventilation circuit and maintaining the enclosure under vacuum .  3. Device according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the receiving means  (8) items to be sorted consist of an automatic conveyor system.  4. Device according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the receiving means  8) items to be sorted consist of a table.  5. Device according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the receiving means (8) of the articles to be sorted consist of a conveyor belt.  6. Device according to one of claims  1 to 5, characterized in that the storage means  9; sorted articles consist of mobile elements of the bag-carrier trolley type disposed against the receiving means (8) of the articles to be sorted.  7. Device according to one of claims  1 to 6, characterized in that the enclosure consists of a structure which can be entirely dismantled by panel, each of its faces comprising one or more panels which can be dismantled separately.  8. Device according to claim 7, characterized in that the panels are assembled on a frame structure in sections (42).  9. Device according to claim 8, characterized in that the removable panels are assembled on a frame structure in sections by a system of clips (25), each panel being removable by simple traction.  10. Device according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the inlet means (1) of the articles to be sorted and the outlet means (12) of the sorted articles consist of panels which can be opened from the faces of the pregnant.  11. Device according to one of claims  2 to 10, characterized in that the ventilation system  tion consists of a system of extractor hoods available  inside the enclosure, the hoods (14 and 16) being  connected to an external ventilation circuit.  12. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that  the chassis comprises a conveyor belt (8) and several  bag carrier trolleys (9) arranged against the red carpet  lant in its length,  the enclosure also has a ceiling (20i and a plan  expensive,  - a front face directly against the carpet in  its length and an opposite rear face, directly  against tanks # iots, each equipped with  glove flanges (4) above the mat (8) and  carriages (9) respectively and each flange  of glove being surmounted by a transparent panel (6)  and (7), and a means 112) for entering and leaving the  carriages being provided on said rear face,  - a small side face directly against each  end of the treadmill (33d and (35), one of which  (35) having a means (1) of access to an airlock  loading (2) of the mat (8) above said mat,  the ventilation system is that the surface  of the treadmill is perforated by holes (13) and that  two hoods are arranged inside the enclosure  respectively  - above the treadmill and carts (1 4) and  - below the conveyor belt next to the carriages (16),  the upper hood covering the entire surface of the  girdle and lower hood-covering the entire surface  of the enclosure under the carpet next to the carts, each  hood being connected by a sheath to a collector  outside sucking air inside the enclosure.  13. Device according to claim 12, characterized in that the means of access to the loading airlock (2) consists of a panel (1) of the lateral face (35) against the end of the belt, panel which opens rotating around its base at the surface of the mat and has two side edges (36) which  make it a hopper for loading the airlock (2).  14. Device according to one of claims 12 and 13, characterized in that the means of entry and exit of the carriages consist of opening panels (12) on the rear face (31) facing the carriages.  15. Device according to one of claims 12 to 14, characterized in that lighting (19) is provided in the compartment (20) of the enclosure above the upper hood (14), the latter being fitted with transparent panels (18s  16. Device according to one of claims 12 to 15, characterized in that it comprises a purge (21J in the lower part of the sheath (17j of the lower hood (16j connected to a waste water evacuation pipe).  17. Device according to one of claims 12 to 16, characterized in that the front face is inclined in its part (6) above the conveyor belt and the transparent panels which it comprises can slide on slides (27) .