Spring maker certified for nuclear applications

Christian Bauer, the parent company of the UK based Bauer Springs, manufactures of a wide range of individual disc springs as well as customised spring pack assemblies. The company has achieved full certification as an approved supplier of these products to the nuclear industry, either direct or through other OEM suppliers to this market. The certifications include ISO 9001:2000 (which is helpful but not essential), together with KTA 3204 (which is a German standard covering aspects of manufacturing, quality control, testing and inspection for approved suppliers to the nuclear industry). These are also supplemented with KTA 1401 and AVS D 100/50 (a higher certification covering nuclear engineering codes), which can only be achieved when KTA 3204 has been obtained.

These are government-based legal requirements for suppliers to the nuclear industry. They have been established to ensure that such suppliers and their personnel have the technology to produce parts of appropriate quality, with the knowledge and capacity to check and verify the quality. There is no higher certification protocol currently available covering the supply of equipment to the nuclear industry and Christian Bauer is one of the few companies, and possibly the only disc springs manufacturer to date, that has been certified to this level. The company also has relevant ISO certifications, together with TÜV CERT according to DIN EN ISO 2001.

Disc springs, used singly or in pack form are unique in the mechanical energy storage capacity they provide after compression for short stroke applications. This is particularly useful where safety critical conditions require a guaranteed mechanical force to be generated, even in the event of total power failure, typically for the operation of safety valves. Many industries, not only power generation, rely upon these unique and reliable, sources of stored energy for fail-safe operations.