PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Date May 14, 2010
Contact:
Sales at
Newton Labs
425-251-9600
sales@newtonlabs.com
newton labs announces the successful deployment of its nM200 fuel assembly dimensioning and mapping system at exelon corporation's byron station
Seattle, Washington - Newton Labs, a Seattle based manufacturer of machine vision and optical automation is pleased to announce the successful deployment of its NM200E Fuel Assembly Dimensioning and Mapping System at the Exelon Corporation's Byron plant, located 110 miles west of Chicago, Illinois. The NM200E system, utilized during the latest outage at the plant the week of April 25, 2010 was able to accurately measure the location of the Fuel Assemblies and deliver that information to both the bridge operator and the outage/engineering personnel and to permanently store the data for later review.
Dave Kelly, Exelon Manager of Outage Services who supervised the deployment of the system, said, "It worked." He went on to say, "The system's ability to overcome the known issues of thermals, the differential between old and new bundles and other core difficulties was outstanding. Since the correct placement of Fuel Assemblies is a constant concern for the industry, this extremely accurate system is a welcome addition to the current tools for determining FA placement."
The NM200E Fuel Assembly Dimensioning and Mapping System is pole deployed down from the bridge above the fuel assembly and utilizes Machine Vision non-contact technology to locate the FA nozzles and their spatial relationship to the baffles. The system then measures, determines and records all of the distances between the Fuel Assemblies and also the baffles. In addition to measuring, recording and communicating all of the distances, the system also produces a real time green-yellow-red map for immediate usage by outage personnel.
"After struggling with in-vessel dimensions for 13 years, I am very pleased with this development of a non-contact measurement system that worked so well," stated Keith Moser, Innovation Manager for Exelon Nuclear. "I believe this to be just the first of a series of non-contact measurement systems to solve these persistent in-vessel measurement issues. Exelon as a leader in technology in the nuclear industry is committed to the deployment of appropriate technological solutions to these long standing problems."
The NM200E Fuel Assembly Mapping System, developed in conjunction with Exelon, will be marketed worldwide by Newton Labs along with its companion products: The NM200UW Underwater laser 3D dimensioning head and the NM200C nuclear camera.
About Newton Labs
Seattle based Newton Labs is a privately held manufacturer of laser scanning, machine vision, robotics and optical automation with significant nuclear experience.
A spin-out of MIT, the company has for more than 20 years developed and marketed high-performance, computer-driven laser scanners, robotics, machine vision
and automation for industrial and nuclear processes. Newton's products are designed to allow the quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness of
computer technology to replace the human element in virtually every industry. Newton Labs has deployed more than 30,000 laser scanning, machine vision,
robotic and automation systems worldwide. Additional information about Newton and its products may be found at www.newtonlabs.com