Company insight
in aluminium. The company can tailor detector gas fill to its customers’ individual sensitivity requirements, with a range of sizes and materials on offer – depending on customer requirements, Reuter-Stokes’ most common offerings are 1100-series aluminium or 304 stainless steel.
“On the other hand, there are detectors that need to be able to operate in relatively high gamma environments, which is where the 10B detectors come into play. 10B detectors are ideal for use in high gamma applications – such as in close proximity to a nuclear reactor. They are proportional counters much like the 3He detector, but instead of neutrons captured by 3He gas, neutrons are captured by the 10B coating – particles emitted into the gas volume.” “The objective for a 3He detector is to capture neutrons as efficiently as possible in the customer’s environment,” says Conway. “With B-10 detectors, while this is still the objective, the cross-section of Boron-10 is not as large as 3He, and having the neutron-sensitive material only coated on the detector body rather than its gas volume also reduces capture efficiency. This means that a 10B detector has a lower sensitivity compared to the same size 3He detector because the individual sensitivity requirements, with a range of sizes and materials on a 10B has advantages in high gamma environments.” In 2012, Reuter-Stokes began looking into ways to increase the sensitivity of its 10B detectors. The resulting 10B Plus took the previously mentioned boron coating and using a thin layer of that alongside a small amount of 3He gas, resulting in almost double the sensitivity of a 10B detector. Incorporating both materials in the same detector allowed the company to reduce the detector background in a high gamma environment while increasing sensitivity.
Enhancing through automation Embracing its culture of continuous improvement, Reuter-Stokes has recently taken strides forward in automation, starting a company-wide project not just to upgrade manufacturing equipment and processes, but also to automate certain assembly areas. “This is a good example of where we learned from other Baker Hughes businesses who had applied automation across their manufacturing facilities,” added Conway. Reuter-Stokes’ welding and brazing processes quickly became the areas of focus, with the company transitioning from its standard welding process to laser welding. This enhances not only the consistency of the product from part to part, but this new process also allows for cleaner weld and tight tolerances that maintain or even increase strength in Reuter-Stokes high-pressure detectors. “We listened to our customers. They asked if even tighter tolerances for their detectors could be achieved [for certain applications],” notes Conway. “So, we looked into it and found that our laser welding was able to exceed those expectations and applied this improvement across the board.” The company also sought to automate aspects of the anode build process. Its anodes are each roughly about a quarter of the diameter of a human hair and, since 1956, they’ve all been made by hand. “It requires a lot of patience, a very steady hand and a certain intricate skill set,” says Conway. “We’ve been able to improve production and quality by automating certain parts of that process.”
Gas reclamation, detector customisation and gas gain matching
Beyond its detector products, Reuter- Stokes also offers a range of services to the sectors it covers, including gas reclamation, which it provides for new
projects and for clients retrofitting old equipment. While 100% efficiency isn’t yet possible, Conway and his team are proud to say the company’s process is more than 96% efficient. “So, when an old detector has 1L of 3He gas, we can reclaim 0.96L of gas out of that detector,” Conway explains – not a small thing, given the impact on the current cost of 3He due to global events, inflation and supply chain issues. Similarly, Reuter-Stokes also offers detector customisation, as previously discussed, and gain matching services to its clients, with the ability to performance match any detector currently in the field. If the customers specify a design operating voltage and charge output, then Reuter-Stokes can make a new detector matching those parameters – this detector then becomes a drop-in replacement for an existing system, again helping customers save on costs. In addition to standard proportional counters, which have single output for all events in the detector gas volume, RS also manufactures position sensitive detectors (PSD), which have connectors at both detector ends and a resistive anode, allowing measurement of what location along the detector’s active region the neutron capture occurred. “We’ll ask the customer to give as much information as they can,” notes Conway. “The more inputs we can get for a detector customisation, whether it be with an existing design, or a new custom design, the better. By partnering with the customer and helping its team progress their product offering and application, we can develop the best possible customised solution in a relatively short timeframe.” Conway concluded: “I’m proud that
Reuter-Stokes, and in particular our radiation monitoring product line, is helping Baker Hughes take energy forward. We’re pushing the boundaries of innovation to develop world-leading cutting-edge sensor technology that provides our customers with the accuracy and reliability they need across radiation monitoring applications. At the same time, we’re positioning Baker Hughes and Baker Hughes technology in a new sector and extending its footprint across industrial markets.” ●
The 3He neutron detector aims to capture neutrons as efficiently as possible in the customer’s environment. Defence & Security Systems International /
www.defence-and-security.com
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