MACHINE DESTINEE A ASSEMBLER UN ASSEMBLAGE DE COMBUSTIBLE NUCLEAIRE

The present invention is made to provide an assembling machine for nuclear fuel assembly, having a simple mechanical construction, in which the time required for inserting the fuel rod can be reduced. In the prior-art machine, the pull-in rod and its drive mechanism and the like are required to perform the operation for inserting the fuel rod into the supporting grid, thus, the mechanical construction must be complicated. Further, a relatively long time must be required to perform the operation for holding the fuel rod by the pull-in rod, which makes the whole working hours longer. In the machine according to the present invention, a drive mechanism is provided to drive a stopper, by which the regulation of the stopper for regulating the fall-down movement of the fuel rod can be released with ease. Thus, the fuel rod is fallen down by its own weight, so that the fuel rod can be inserted into the grid cell of the supporting grid which is supported by the supporting post. Therefore, the machine construction can be simplified, and it is not necessary to perform the prior-art operation for holding the fuel rod by the pull-in rod, so that the time required for performing the inserting operation of the fuel rod can be reduced.