Isolation and protection device for working on tubing, and in particular on nuclear power station tubing

摘要

An isolation and protection device is suitable for being inserted and deployed inside tubing, in order, in particular, to collect swarf and foreign bodies during work on tubing which must be kept under a controlled gas atmosphere, or to act as a flow plug or as a heat shield. The device comprises: a central shaft (100); a deformable sealing member (300) suitable for assuming the inside shape of the tubing; a plurality of arms (200) which are regularly distributed around the shaft and which are collapsible thereagainst to enable the device to be inserted into the tubing; one end (230) of each arm supporting the sealing member and the other end (210) of each arm being hinged to a common base (220); mechanical clamping means (110-150) connected to the shaft and to the base for deploying the device and for pressing the sealing member against the inside surface of the tubing whose shape it is to assume; and two sheets (400, 410) each having its periphery supported by said sealing member, and at least one of said sheets (410) being suitable for hermetically isolating the volumes which it delimits.