Company Profile
Numet Engineering is a 100% nuclear equipment design-and supply company, i.e. all Numet’s clients are either companies that are solely engaged in the clean-up of nuclear waste, or they are nuclear power utilities.
This profile provides a brief description of Numet Engineering and its areas of interest and expertise. The major QA programs to which Numet can supply custom designed products are listed below together with a typical sample of Numet clients.
Market Sectors
Hazardous Environments: nuclear decontamination, waste handling/transportation, remotely operated handling operations in hazardous areas, control systems design and manufacture.
Nuclear plant: reactor maintenance, process components and systems, decommissioning applications.
Lines of Business
Numet Engineering is a privately owned company specializing in the design, development and manufacture of high reliability, custom-engineered systems for the nuclear industry. Founded in 1974 as a supplier of process equipment to nuclear power plants, the company has continued to expand and re-focus its operations. Today, the company’s major lines of business include,
- waste handling and process equipment,
- custom process components for nuclear utilities,
- special purpose tools and tele-robotic systems for reactor maintenance and refurbishment,
- and the supply of replacement OEM ASME type equipment.
Waste Handling and process equipment supplied to the nuclear power and nuclear waste clean-up industries includes skid mounted Ion Exchange Decontamination Systems and Active Sludge Separation Systems, custom-designed Cooling Systems for use in high level waste vitrification processes, tritium handling and storage equipment, pyrochemical & salt distillation furnaces, shielded flask transfer systems, used fuel storage container lid clamps, storage and transportation vessels, and various types of filters and strainers.
Custom process components include ASME Section III Drain Traps, Flow Elements, Flame Arrestors, Heat Exchangers, Pressure Reducing Coils, Sight Flow Indicators and Y-Strainers.
The range of special purpose tools and manipulators that Numet has in service covers payloads from 0.008 lbs to 8000 lbs, working environments from clean-rooms through active waste storage tanks to the face of a nuclear reactor, and includes control systems that range from tele-operators to fully automatic control and data acquisition systems.
The supply of OEM ASME type equipment includes fittings, pumps, valves, tube clamps, pipe supports and seismic restraints.
Because Numet specializes in the design and supply of nuclear equipment, the majority of Numet’s equipment is of stainless steel construction.
Systems Integration
As is evident from the examples of typical equipment that Numet has supplied, Numet Engineering specializes in the custom-design, manufacture, testing and supply of special purpose equipment to the nuclear active waste and the nuclear power industries. Numet staff comprises mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and control engineering professionals as well as corresponding CAD designers and drafting personnel. Shop staff include machinists, nuclear qualified welders and millwrights experienced in the assembly and testing of complex electro-mechanical systems for the nuclear industry. As such Numet has a long and successful history with the design, manufacture and in-house systems integration of small, large, simple and complex nuclear process and active waste handling systems.
Quality Assurance Program
Numet has been supplying custom designed, high QA products to the nuclear industry for over 25 years.
Because of our complete focus on nuclear products, Numet has a very active nuclear Quality Assurance program. This program affects all our products and is, therefore, very actively enforced. All QA staff operate completely independently from production staff and production management, reporting directly through the Engineering/QA Manager to the company President.
Numet maintains and operates a wide variety of quality procedures, enabling the company to provide equipment to the highest nuclear quality programs, as the Client requires. In-house QA Programs include:
- N-Stamp
- ASME Sec. III (including NQA-1)
- U-Stamp
- ASME Sec. VIII
- ISO9001
- CSA Z299.1
- MIL Q-9858A
In additional to ASME itself, for the provision of nuclear pressure vessels and components, our relevant QA programs have been audited and approved by such US clients as,
- Bechtel National Inc. for the River Protection Project – Waste Treatment Plant
- Westinghouse Savannah River Co. for BNFL, Bechtel and Westinghouse
- Lockheed Martin Energy Systems for work on the Melton Valley Waste Tanks
- Westinghouse Hanford Co. for work on the Hanford Waste Storage Tanks
- West Valley Nuclear Services Co. for work on the Vitrification Project
For our operations in Canada we are audited by the TSSA (Technical Standards & Safety Authority) of Ontario for the provision of nuclear and non nuclear components. CANPAC reviews our QA programs on behalf of Canadian Utilities. Numet’s QA programs has also been audited and accepted for design activities in accordance with CSA N286.2.
Engineering, Design and Systems Integration Services
Engineering/Design Staff - Numet engineering staff comprises mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and control engineering professionals as well as corresponding CAD designers and drafting personnel. This engineering team has many years experience of working together on a variety of nuclear projects involving the design, manufacture and in-house systems integration of small, large, simple and complex nuclear process and active waste handling systems.
Design Offices - All design, analysis, scheduling, procurement and management information systems are computer based and fully integrated. The major design and engineering software systems employed at Numet are:
- “Solid Edge” 3-D Parametric Modeling Package, latest revision.
- ANSYS “Design Space” Finite Element Analysis (FEA), integrated with Solid Edge Modeling.
- ANSYS Professional FEA.
- NISA/Display FEA.
- “AutoCAD”, Rev. 14
- "AutoCAD" Electrical
Numet’s engineering and design offices are also equipped to provide electronic exchange of information with its clients. Indeed, Numet regularly exchanges drawing files and engineering reports with its major customers. This type of exchange is accomplished through E-Mail, using either the client's dedicated software, or, alternatively, through the Internet. Both systems have demonstrated reliability and proven efficiency over a large number of document exchanges between Numet and its clients.
Systems Integration Services - Numet can provide Systems Integration Services and does so for the majority of the equipment we supply on a regular and consistent basis.
As stated previously, Numet staff comprises mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and control engineering professionals as well as corresponding CAD designers and drafting personnel. Numet staff however also includes machinists, nuclear qualified welders and millwrights experienced in the assembly and testing of complex electro-mechanical systems for the nuclear industry. As such Numet has a long and successful history with the design, manufacture and in-house systems integration of small, large, simple and complex nuclear process and active waste handling systems.
Design of Nuclear Systems - Numet Engineering’s business is built upon its ability to undertake nuclear design studies and projects at all stages of design development, including: concept designs, design specifications, preliminary and detailed design, prototype design and development, seismic analysis, thermal analysis, reliability analysis, as well as designs for: minimum cost, minimum radiation, radiation shielding, operator accessibility and operability, ease of maintenance, remote maintenance or operation, heat flow and heat exchange, electro-mechanical machines, fully automatic machines and processes, process systems, material handling, and hazardous materials handling.
Numet also possesses a fully equipped manufacturing plant and is intimately familiar with the manufacturing process for special purpose nuclear equipment. It is this familiarity which gives the company an added advantage when acting as a design/build consultant on engineering projects where the costing and evaluation of competing, special-purpose designs is a priority.
Facility and Work Areas
Operating Spaces - Numet Engineering Ltd.’s head office is a modern 28,000 ft.2 facility comprising 8,000 ft.2 of offices and 20,000 ft.2 of manufacturing plant. The facility is situated on a 3.3 acre lot which includes 1,000 ft.2 of outside operating area and 2,000 ft.2 of outside, fenced storage space. The indoor manufacturing facility includes a 15,000 ft.2 machining, welding, assembly area and a 5,000 ft.2 air-conditioned, Clean Room assembly and test area.
The 15,000 ft.2 manufacturing area is divided into two bays. One bay, used for large fabrications and assembly of large systems, is 150 ft. long by 50 ft. wide and is serviced by a 6 ton overhead crane. The under hook height of the crane is approximately 14 ft. 6 in. Skid mounted process systems weighing up to 50 tons, as well as multi-ton electro-mechanical manipulators are assembled and tested in this bay. The second bay, of equal size, is split into two main areas, a machine shop area of approximately 3,000 ft.2, comprising CNC and conventional machine tools, and a fabrication area of approximately 4,500 ft.2 where structural welding, fabrication and assembly operations occur.
The 5,000 ft.2 (100 ft. x 50 ft.) Clean Room is used for the assembly and testing of such items as hydraulic and pneumatic valve stations, electrical control panels, electro-mechanical tooling, robotic systems and smaller skid-mounted process systems. A mass spectrometer helium leak test station is also located in this room. Personnel access to the Clean Room area is restricted and controlled by use of a key-pad entry system. Only specific personnel actively working in the area are given access codes.
Carbon and Stainless Steel
Welding operations involving components fabricated from stainless steel, Inconel, Hastalloy, tantalum, titanium and other exotic materials, are carried out in an isolated, air controlled welding room. Welding on very large items takes place in the general assembly bay. All such weldments are separated and quarantined according to material, such that the welding of all large stainless steel items is carried out in a cordoned-off area at the opposite end of the building to the carbon steel welding area. De-mountable partition enclosures and dust curtains are used, as required, to prevent cross contamination of stainless steel items.
Tools, such as grinding wheels, wire brushes, etc., are clearly identified as to usage, and such tools are then controlled and restricted for use only with carbon steel or stainless steel as appropriate. Welding jigs, fixtures and other tooling, which are to be used with stainless steel parts, are only manufactured from stainless steel, or other suitable materials, and all their contact surfaces are masked. All such tooling is stored separately from that for use with carbon steel.
Equipment Integration and Testing
Location of equipment for integration and testing is dependant upon a number of factors including physical size of the assembled unit, type of testing to be conducted, cleanliness requirements and process flow test requirements.
For large jobs, equipment integration and testing is conducted in the main assembly (7,500 ft.2) bay under the overhead crane. Smaller jobs are handled in the small assembly bay (4,500 ft.2) or in the Clean Room. For very large jobs, e.g. height of the assembly or test fixtures in excess of 18 ft., the equipment will be assembled and integrated in the outdoors operations area. Three phase power, pneumatic and water services are readily available to this area as well as to all the other assembly/test areas.
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