Development of ray nondestructive detecting and grinding robot for weld seam in pipe

摘要

Pipeline systems in industrial facilities are connected and installed by welding, and weld position most prone to damage. In this paper, the design and research of the robot implementing y-ray nondestructive detecting and automatic grinding for the inner girth weld seam of the thick wall pipe are carried out. This robot can be adapted to pipes with an inner wall diameter ranging from 270mm to 380mm. In the mechanical structure, the robot is composed of mobile unit, three axes differential drive mechanism, detecting unit and grinding unit. The mobile unit provides tube walking and climbing ability for the robot, three axes differential drive mechanism ensures the self-adaptive nature to elbow, detecting unit can realize the nondestructive inspecting of weld seam, and grinding unit completes the automatic grinding task. After grasping the basic performance of the robot by in-depth theoretical and simulation analysis, a prototype is built and the experimental research of the crawling ability is accomplished. It is proved that the robot has reliable creeping ability in the pipe.