Motion Control Technology is a bimonthly supplement to NASA Tech Briefs magazine, providing engineers the latest advances in motion control products. One section, Applications, highlights how a particular motion control component is utilized by an end-user. Here is one of the technologies featured in the April issue's Applications section:
Hydraulic Safety Catchers Protect Spallation Neutron Source Shutter Operation
At full power, the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN), will produce the world's most intense pulsed neutron beams for neutron scattering research methods. Part of the neutron delivery system consists of shutters composed of tungsten and steel, weighing 18 and 30 tons and measuring two meters thick each. They are raised and lowered vertically by stainless steel hydraulic cylinders.
Employed at each shutter are two specially designed hydraulic release stainless steel Sitema Safety Catchers designed by Advanced Machine & Engineering (AME, Rockford, IL). The safety catchers are designed to prevent gravity fall of a vertical load by absorbing kinetic energy, and use high-pressure filtered tap water. They develop holding force by self- intensification created by the load as it travels downward.
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