The problem posed by our client, an electricity producer, was to insert a shock-absorbing cover on a spent fuel package. The complexity lay in the fact that the insertion had to be done over a length of 500 mm, with an available clearance of only 1 mm and while the packaging was not strictly horizontal. The use of an electrically or hydraulically assisted system was prohibited.

Faced with this technical challenge, Sapem has designed a particularly innovative positioning beam:

• Operable manually with a force of a few kilos.

• Offering a sensitivity of less than 0.002 degrees.

• Operating exclusively mechanically to eliminate any interference with electromagnetic waves .

The operation resulted in a very significant success for our client, despite the technical challenges encountered.