The small bearing was cracked by the Chinese, allowing the nuclear power plant to be "giant" for long standby ,safer and more economical

Small bearings can also solve big problems. The "bearing" is a key component of the nuclear main pump. In the past, the metal bearing was easy to wear, the replacement and maintenance cost was huge. Three years ago, Harbin Electric Power Equipment Co., Ltd. of Harbin Power Group aimed at this key small component and independently developed a new wear-resistant bearing for the Hualong No. 1 nuclear main pump.It is allowed nuclear power plants to be safer and more economical for the “giant”. The Hualong No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Coolant Pump Thrust Bearing which was independently developed by Harbin Electric Assembly Company passed the review in Harbin on May 10th,2018.

This review was organized by the China Machinery Industry Federation. The expert group consisting of Yu Junchong, Yuxi Xi'an and other 13 experts from the Chinese Academy of Engineering.They agreed that the new composite bearing is superior to the Pakistani alloy thrust bearing and has complete independent knowledge. Property rights fill the domestic gap. According to the investigation, the current foreign similar manufacturers have not yet solved the problem of easy wear of such bearings.Harbin super wear-resistant bearings is in the international leading position. This localized core technology has added a weapon for China’s nuclear power and international players to compete on the same stage.

On May 13th, he project leader, deputy chief designer of Harbin Electric Assembly Company, Cai Long, introduced their newly developed wear-resistant bearing to a reporter from Science and Technology Daily. The traditional nuclear power bearing uses Babbitt material.The nuclear power pumps are prone to bearing bush wear if the power outages in the whole factory, resulting in nuclear power station outages and frequent maintenance. Each time each nuclear power unit needs at least one downtime-cooling-dismantlement-repair process. It will generate hundreds of millions of damages. And it will affect the economic efficiency of nuclear power operations.

In order to improve the safety and stable operation capability of nuclear power plants under various sudden working conditions. Harbin Power Group’s research and development team developed a new type of thrust bearing ahead in 2016.After three years, Harbin electric equipment developed a new super wear-resistant thrust bearing for Hualong No.1. The bearing bush adopts a new type of carbon fiber reinforced PPESK composite material with completely independent intellectual property rights, and has good wear resistance. It can realize that the core pump with no damage the bearing even if it encounters the whole factory power failure within the specified operating cycle.

The new thrust bearing has undergone various tests and successively passed the 375-hour full-flow operation test of Hualong No. 1 nuclear main pump and 53 start-stops (including no top-oil stoppage).It has undergone a 2184-hour high-temperature oil immersion test.What’s more,the thrust bearing manufactured by the same material and process completed 2012 hours high load operation and 206 non-top oil start and stop tests on the bearing test bench.And all performance indicators met the third generation nuclear power technical requirements.