Measurement and Control Solutions

We engineer innovative measurement and control solutions that support the success of companies operating complex and safety critical processes in extreme environments.

Curtiss-Wright's Wimborne and Round Rock facilities have worked with nuclear and industrial customers for almost 70 years. During that time, we’ve created technologies that deliver two essential goals for our customers: minimizing or removing the safety risk associated with industrial processes and optimizing their operation to gain long-term efficiency and deliver greater value to stakeholders.

We support customers across the world from facilities located in the US and UK. Our solutions are embedded in strategic national infrastructure and our people are active partners in customer programs that are focused on delivering advanced future nuclear and industrial capabilities.

FULL, LONG-TERM PROTECTION AND CONTROL OF MISSION CRITICAL SYSTEMS

We work in close collaboration with customers, leveraging our own proven technologies to build custom solutions that address the specific requirements of their programs. Our global design, manufacturing, and project management team add their intelligence and expertise to ensure that solutions are specified to meet the needs of the project, are delivered on time, and at a very high quality.

+ NEUTRON MONITORING SOLUTIONS

Curtiss-Wright neutron monitoring solutions offer information and control for power and safety management in large and next generation reactors.

‘Core to control room’ solutions provide actionable information to operators
Full power range of reactors, from start-up to full power
High temperature detectors support advanced reactor designs

Curtiss-Wright Wimborne designs and manufactures neutron monitoring solutions that ensure safe power generation by reactors over the full life of a nuclear power plant. Our ‘core to control room’ solutions detect the presence of neutrons and provide actionable information to human operators, as well as integrating with automated safety control and shutdown systems.

Custom Solutions for New or Existing Reactor Designs

Operators must know the neutron flux in a reactor core to make informed safety and control decisions. As well as supplying custom solutions for new reactors or replacements for existing designs, we help developers construct a safety case for neutron monitoring systems. Ultra Energy’s neutron detectors cover the full power range of the core and now work at up to 1472 o F (800 o C), which is of significant value to designers of advanced reactors.

Embedded Across the Nuclear Power Fleets and Supporting Development Reactors

Curtiss-Wright owns the neutron detector design for the UK’s AGR and has manufactured replacement detectors for these sites for the last ten years, having supported EDF’s safety-case justification for their life extension with the UK regulator. As well as supplying neutron monitoring solutions to these and other civil nuclear programs, we also support research and development reactors and supply the British Royal Navy’s fleet of nuclear-powered vessels.

For more details, please visit cwic.curtisswright.com/solutions/neutron-monitoring

+ RADIATION MONITORING

Curtiss-Wright’s radiation monitoring solutions detect radiation, automatically triggering a response if action is needed.

Detect presence of radiation in any media
Monitor specific high-risk location or across wider areas
If set thresholds are exceeded, initiate automated responses and alert operators to take mitigating action

Curtiss-Wright Wimborne designs and manufactures radiation monitoring solutions that detect radiation and trigger an alarm if levels rise above a pre-set threshold. Our sensor range includes equipment that can detect all forms of radiation across any media, including gases, liquids, solids and surfaces.

All Radiation Leaks Detectable with Intelligent Decision-Making Systems Initiating Action

Even small doses of radiation are potentially harmful so it is critical that leaks of any kind, in any part of your site can be detected quickly and mitigating action initiated. Our detectors are positioned in locations known to be high-risk or distributed to monitor large geographic areas. Sensors create and transmit an electronic signal to analysis and decision-making systems. If set thresholds are exceeded, alarms are triggered locally and across a network of linked devices.

Long-Established Pedigree in Radiation Detection at Sites Across the World

Curtiss-Wright’s heritage in radiation monitoring began in the 1980s, when we started integrating third party radiation monitoring technology in our solutions. From the early 1990s, we manufactured the technology ourselves, integrating it into solutions we developed for the civil nuclear industry. Our solutions are now used by many of the world’s leading nuclear organizations, both civil and defense.

For more details, please visit cwic.curtisswright.com/solutions/radiation-monitoring

+ REACTOR PROTECTION & CONTROL

Curtiss-Wright’s Guardline is a technology platform that enables the rapid delivery of highly customized I&C safety systems for nuclear power plants. It has a modular architecture. Pre-qualified, mutually compatible, standard modules are combined into units that deliver specific technical functionality. Units are combined to create a system that meets the complete range of customer requirements.

Key Benefits

Highly customizable
Rapidly configured
Comprehensive functionality

System (96 Series)

Customer specific configuration of modules, units, and sub-systems to provide a low risk, tailored solution.

Unit (95 Series)

Configurable sub-systems of modules, mounted in 19-inch chassis, in 3U or 6U configurations.

Module (94 Series)

The building blocks of the architecture is a catalogue of 3U-high modules, designed to perform a given functional task.

Applications

Guardline is the evolutionary pinnacle of Curtiss-Wright Wimborne’s nearly 70 years’ experience developing I&C technology for nuclear platforms across the world. It meets the requirements of a wide range of safety applications within nuclear power plants including:

Primary protection
Diverse protection
Post accident monitoring
Severe accident monitoring
Priority logic
Diesel generator

Proven in Use

Guardline has seen over 10 million hours of operational safety duty use in the UK Advanced Gas Reactor fleet alone, with further tens of millions of hours use internationally in both safety-critical and safety-related roles.

For more details, please visit cwic.curtisswright.com/solutions/reactor-protection-and-control

+ TEMPERATURE & PRESSURE

We provide precise and reliable temperature and pressure measurements for safe ongoing control of nuclear and industrial processes.

Comprehensive range to deliver customer requirements regardless of installation constraints
Highly experienced global design and manufacturing team to deliver the right sensor at the right time
Proven effectiveness with installations in most US nuclear power stations

Curtiss-Wright Round Rock designs and manufactures nuclear qualified, precision temperature and pressure sensors, as well as related accessories, for use in nuclear plants and other safety- critical industrial applications. With a comprehensive range of products, we can support significant variation in environmental conditions, physical complexity and other system installation constraints.

Global Team Providing an End-To-End Application Engineering Service

Our global team performs the engineering development, manufacturing, supply chain management and logistics to ensure you get the right sensor, with the right performance, at the right time to meet your needs. Our design and manufacturing capabilities enable customer-application lead delivery of individual sensors up to bespoke sensor assemblies.

Vital Safety Role in International Nuclear Power Markets

We have delivered measurement systems that comply with nuclear regulatory frameworks for over 60 years. In the US, over 80% of reactors rely on our temperature sensors for critical reactor coolant monitoring. Our pressure transmitters are used at over 20% of US nuclear power plants. In the UK, we are class-leading in the development and integration of safety- critical temperature and pressure solutions in both the civil and military nuclear markets.

Qualified Sensors for All Reactor Forms

Curtiss-Wright sensors are qualified for use in all leading reactor technologies, including AGR, PWR, BWR, CANDU (PHWR), and APWR, as well as the advanced and small modular reactors that are currently under development.

For more details, please visit cwic.curtisswright.com/solutions/temperature-and-pressure

+ FIBER OPTIC NETWORKING

Curtiss-Wright supplies rugged fiber optic networking solutions for automation and process control in harsh, industrial environments. A fiber optic system using an optical transceiver and fiber optic media offers an array of benefits that are not available with traditional copper-based systems in similar settings.

High data rate and bandwidth capacity
Immunity to EMI/RFI and lightning damage
No ground loops
Low attenuation
Longer transmission distances, up to 80km
Small cable diameter fits almost anywhere
Light weight
No sparks if cut, ideal for hazardous location applications
No electric shock hazard
Secure communications
Flexible networking topologies
Corrosion resistant
Longer life expectancy than copper or coaxial cable
Lower total system cost

Our fiber solutions provide cost-effective ways to monitor and control electrical signals:

Convert copper signals to fiber, and back again to copper
Support all network topologies, including single and dual-channel Self-Healing Rings (SHRs)
Provide local and global diagnostics
Work with the various open and proprietary protocols supported by a variety of PLC providers
Multiplex 4-20mA, 0-10VDC, dry contacts, RS-232/485 over a pair of fiber
Provide analog and digital data links
Class I, DIV 2, Groups A,B,C,D, and ATEX and CE
Operating temperature -40°C to +85°C

For more details, please visit cwic.curtisswright.com/solutions/fiber-optic-networking