LONG REACH TOOLING

Forth has developed a number of innovative long reach tools to make jobs across the nuclear industry easier to complete. The extended reach enables work to be carried out into deeper cavities much quicker and with more precision. Examples of our developments include a chipping hammer made of carbon fibre and carbon steel which works effectively at dislodging and removing debris in an underwater environment, and a long reach retrieval tool complete with multiple fittings which can be deployed to be used in various facility settings.

Robotic Arm

Magnox approached Forth with a problem statement to remove spent fuel rods from hazardous pools of fuel at Hinkley Point Power Station from a safe, remote distance to prevent humans manually having to sift unwanted materials from liquids. The human approach was extremely time-consuming and would slow down operations. The team at Forth designed and created a robotic arm to operate exactly like its human counterpart, complete with gripper technology to act as a hand, which was controlled remotely and significantly speeded up the whole process.

Long Reach Inspection Camera And Hook

Called on as an emergency for long-standing client Sellafield, Forth built a long reach inspection and recovery system within the space of just three days. The tool was required to locate, dislodge and recover an item that had become astray eight metres out of reach, so Forth made the system with endless interchangeable parts to mean that only one set of carbon poles were needed for any job.

1” LIGHTWEIGHT BREAKER BAR

To be used to carry out daily operations around the plant in a safer and more accessible manner, Forth developed a 1” Lightweight Breaker Bar for its partners at Sellafield. The team had to carefully calculate the forces required for the daily tasks to ensure the carbon fibre could withstand tough environments. The tool was made lightweight as possible with the carbon fibre staring at 5mm wall thickness at the pressure points, tapering off to 3mm at the opposite end.

Trunnion Spreader

The Trunnion Spreader was manufactured to attach to Forth’s long reach carbon tools to aid a client to repair damaged trunnions which were six metres underwater, enabling them to be successfully and safely transferred using the skip handler.