Process for heat treating a heat exchanger tube surrounded by a support plate.

摘要

A process for rapidly and uniformly heat treating a conduit section of a heat exchanger tube which has a heat sink such as a support plate is disclosed herein. The process utilizes a radiant heater assembly capable of directing heat from a zone whose length is less than the length of the conduit section to be stress relieved, and generally comprises the step of actuating the heater assembly, and sliding it step by step between the ends of the tube section for known time intervals in order to heat the tube section having nonhomogeneous thermal conductivity to a temperature that is substantially uniform along its length despite conductive heat losses through the support plate. The process allows heat exchanger tubes to be readily and reliably stress-relieved in the vicinity of the support plates of a nuclear steam generator.