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Textile industry is one of the promising industries in India. Textile machineries have a huge number of components that are subject to wear and tear. Replacement of the components is very expensive and may not produce break even in many cases. Coatings have been widely used on the mechanical components that are being used in the textile machinery. In this work, the wear characteristics of tungsten carbide coated steel specimens have been studied for probable application in the textile industry. For the purpose of coating, different coating techniques have been studied, among that HVOF technique and plasma coating technique have been extensively studied. In this work, plasma coating technique was used to coat the EN 8 steel specimens with tungsten carbide. The coatings were of varying thickness and different stand-off distance of the plasma torch was considered for the coating to see which would be the best coating thickness and the best stand-off distance. Using the pin on disc experimental set up, the specific wear rate was calculated and the friction coefficient was calculated. It was observed that the frictional force and the Co-efficient were the least in the case of the first experiment that is, at 4 in. stand-off distance and 100 µm coating thickness. SEM analysis and XRD analysis were done on the specimens for mechanical characterization and to ensure that the coatings are uniform and also to determine the composition of the coating.

Improvement of tribological property will enhance textile equipment’s efficiency, reliability, and economics and reduce system down time. The metals or alloys are protected against corrosion and wear by applying corrosion and wear resistant thermal spray coatings. EN8 material is an unalloyed medium carbon steel which possess high strength to weight ratio in comparison to that of the normal bright mild steel. In most of the textile industries, the rollers of the machines are made of EN19 material. Thermally sprayed tungsten carbide (WC) is a very successful powder applied to protect metal surfaces against wear and corrosion-erosion in industries. WC has high hardness and fracture toughness and hence it shows good wear resistance. The HVOF coatings, Plasma spray coating and PVD coatings are the techniques used to coat the tube tex rollers. There are various methods to determine the property of coatings and micro hardness measurement is a method to measure hardness and hence to measure the wear resistance. The base materials EN8 and EN19 were coated with tungsten carbide using Plasma Spray coating method. On the coated specimen, hardness tests were conducted. The hardness values are increased due to WC coatings and hardness is better than the HVOF coated samples and much better than the uncoated samples. Novelty of this work is to increase the hardness of the textile rollers to withstand the wear and tear. Hence these coatings will be more useful for increasing the wear resistance and recommended for Textile mill components.

Fuel Clad Chemical Interaction (FCCI) is one of the life limiting issues in the MOX fuel pins of fast breeder reactors. Clad wastage due to FCCI coupled with stress arising from fission gas pressure and Fuel Clad Mechanical Interaction (FCMI) due to fuel swelling can lead to fuel pin failure. Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques such as Gamma Scanning, Eddy current testing and Neutron Radiography have been successfully used on MOX fuel pins of a test sub-assembly irradiated in Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) to a burn-up of 112 GW d/t to detect signatures of FCCI. The results obtained by the various NDE techniques have been correlated and verified through metallographic examination on fuel pin cross-sections. The measured clad wastage of 85 μm agrees well with a model developed for MOX fuel with high Pu content. The results of examinations have enabled validation of the model and given confidence to the designer that PFBR MOX fuel can safely attain the target burn-up of 100 GW d/t.

Fast reactor cores employ a large number of sub-assemblies for neutron and gamma shielding constituting more than 60% of the core volume. Use of effective and economical shielding materials can significantly improve the safety and cost competitiveness of fast reactors. Ferroboron has been identified as an efficient neutron shielding material for deployment in future commercial breeder reactors in India that can lead to significant cost savings. After successful shielding experiments and out-of-pile compatibility tests, a SS 304L clad irradiation capsule containing ferroboron powder has been subjected to an accelerated irradiation test in Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) to a peak neutron fluence of 8.18E21 n/cm2 for evaluating its in-reactor performance. Results of Post Irradiation Examinations carried out on the irradiation capsule to assess the various performance parameters such as slumping of ferroboron stack, helium release and chemical interaction of SS 304L with ferroboron are reported here. The examinations have indicated that extent of slumping is less than 1% and pressure build up due to helium release is 0.17 MPa (at room temperature), which are well within the permissible limits. A maximum clad wastage of 20% of wall thickness has been observed due to chemical interaction with lithium produced from (n,α) reaction. The irradiation performance assessment of ferroboron indicates its suitability for in-core shielding application in fast reactors.

Nematodes are tiny worms recognized as an important pathogen in both plant and animals around the world. For the management of nematode infection, it is necessary to isolate and identify the species. Nematology laboratories preferred manual isolation methods routinely for nematode isolation. This study has planned to reduce the time and work burden through instrumentation and LAB VIEW software aided microscopic live visual and counts. Stainless steel made instruments were manually arranged with rotatory motor and shaking base plate. The filtration mess via 750μ, 250μ, 150μ were arranged in descending order inside the cylinder tube. Approximately, 10ml of nematode contain filtrated solution was collected in a beaker and used for further quantification purpose. Image capture was performed with the aid of Ultra scope 9.1V camera fitted with Optica stereo microscope and a connected computer. Image processing was done through LAB VIEW platform via Vision acquisition and Vision assistant tools. In our study, the total number of individuals was counted according to the size and motion of live worms in a drop.

Combustion systems normally fixed by gas, oil, coal or other fuels, and employed in the production of energy, generally pose a greater potential threat due to the existence of explosive fuel - air mixtures. During operation of such systems the highest degree of safety must constantly be stricken for under any conceivable state of operation. Hence suitable monitoring and control equipment must be used which is always in the position to check and control the process in a fail safe manner. Furnace Safeguard Supervisory System (FSSS) and Flame Scanners which are suitable for continous operation and normally used in combustion systems [eg. PowerPlant, Refineress esc] are essential components of a complex safety. By this paper I am explaining the importance and some logical operation of FSSS.

In this fast world we should need to know the blood group and type. So quick and perfect identification of blood sample is very important during the urgent situation. This future proposal is to change the physical work in medical laboratories for identifying the blood sample. Usually, the blood group analysis is made in the laboratories and there are three types of blood group analyzing methods, they are ABO forward typing, ABO reverse typing and Rhesus type testing. In the laboratories ABO type and Rhesus type testing techniques are mainly used. In the ABO testing method is used to identify the blood sample group. In the Rhesus testing method is used to identify the positive and negative of blood group.Even though it is easy to identify the blood group of single sample blood, but when handling the large number of blood samples, it might lead to wrong analysis. In order to solve this problem and reducing the manual involvement and to get better reliable result, we design the machine which will automatically identify the blood group based on the application of Infra Red (IR) light source. When the IR light is focused towards the blood sample, the light intensity is changed due to the blood darkness. It will be sensed by the IR light detector. The blood group and type can be identified by the intensity value of the light.

Cold worked austenitic stainless steel type AISI 316 is used as the material for fuel cladding and wrapper of the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR), India. The evaluation of mechanical properties of these core structurals is very essential to assess its integrity and ensure safe and productive operation of FBTR to very high burn-ups. The changes in the mechanical properties of these core structurals are associated with microstructural changes caused by high fluence neutron irradiation and temperatures of 673–823 K. Remote tensile testing has been used for evaluating the tensile properties of irradiated clad tubes and shear punch test using small disk specimens for evaluating the properties of irradiated hexagonal wrapper. This paper will highlight the methods employed for evaluating the mechanical properties of the irradiated cladding and wrapper and discuss the trends in properties as a function of dpa (displacement per atom) and irradiation temperature.

Kamini (Kalpakkam Mini) reactor is a U233 fuelled, demineralised light water moderated and cooled, beryllium oxide reflected, low power (30 kW) nuclear research reactor. This reactor functions as a neutron source with a flux of 1012 n/cm2 s−1 at core centre with facilitates for carrying out neutron radiography, neutron activation analysis and neutron shielding experiments. There are two beam tubes for neutron radiography. The length/diameter ratio of the collimators is about 160 and the aperture size is 220 mm×70 mm. Flux at the outer end of the beam tube is ∼106–107 n/cm2 s. The north end beam tube is for radiography of inactive object while the south side beam tube is for radiography of radioactive objects. The availability of high neutron flux coupled with good collimated beam provides high quality radiographs with short exposure time. The reactor being a unique national facility for neutron radiography has been utilized in the examination of irradiated components, aero engine turbine blades, riveted p...

This paper presents the results of a study on mechanical properties and microstructure in a SS316 wrapper irradiated in a 40MWt/13MWe fast breeder test reactor at Kalpakkam, India. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) examination and mechanical property evaluation were carried out on the hexagonal wrapper subjected to different displacement damages up to a maximum of 83 dpa at an operating temperature of about 673 K. The steel irradiated to 83 dpa showed an increase in the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength, with a reduction in uniform elongation to about 8 %–10 % from about 20 % in the unirradiated material. Density measurements on the specimen from different portions of the irradiated wrapper showed a peak volumetric swelling of about 3.5 % at a damage of 83 dpa. TEM studies showed extensive void formation at 40 dpa and beyond in addition to extensive precipitation and formation of dislocation loops. The void density and size showed a progressive increase with displacement damage. The precipitates were identified to be of nickel and silicon enriched M6C type of η phase, while radiation induced G phase was also observed at 83 dpa. The increase in strength and reduction in ductility with increase in dpa is attributed to irradiation hardening, which is supported by the increase in defect density as observed from the dislocation substructure and increase in the void density and size. The paper would discuss the degradation in mechanical property in terms of the microstructural changes.

Periodic performance assessment of selected fuel subassemblies (FSA) in the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) at Kalpakkam is carried out through post irradiation examination (PIE) to facilitate life extension of the remaining FSAs to safe and optimum limits. A dimensional measurement–cum-laser dismantling (DMLD) machine has been developed, installed and operated inside the radioactive environment of the hot cells for dimensional measurements and dismantling of highly irradiated FSAs discharged from the reactor. This paper discusses the various constructional features of the remotely operated machine, techniques for remote dimensional measurements, reconstruction of 3-D image, and dismantling of FSAs using laser and diamond wheel.