Patent Number: 051868873
Section: summary

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for inspecting the peripheral surfaces of cylindrical nuclear fuel pellets for defects while rotating the pellets on their own axes. In the manufacture of nuclear fuel pellets of uranium dioxide, very severe quality control is required. In particular, those defects which cannot be found by visual inspection must be found by non-destructive inspection. However, with the conventional inspection apparatuses for peripheral surfaces of nuclear fuel pellets, much time has been required for inspecting and sorting the pellets. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide an inspection apparatus for peripheral surfaces of nuclear fuel pellets by which the nuclear fuel pellets can be inspected automatically and sorted quickly and correctly. According to the invention, there is provided an apparatus for inspecting peripheral surfaces of nuclear fuel pellets, comprising: a handling unit for holding a prescribed number of nuclear fuel pellets in a line and rotating the same on axes thereof; an image pick-up device disposed adjacent to the handling unit for picking up image data as to the peripheral surfaces of the nuclear fuel pellets; a judging device operably connected to the image pick-up device for analyzing the image data outputted from the image pick-up device to output judging signals; and a sorting unit operably connected to the judging device for separating defective pellets from non-defective pellets based on the judging signals, the sorting unit including a plurality of sorting members disposed adjacent to the handling unit so as to correspond to the nuclear fuel pellets, respectively, and operating means operably connected to the judging device and the sorting members for operating the sorting members based on the judging signals.