CA2506830A1 - Pipeline pig for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline and method - Google Patents

Pipeline pig for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline and method Download PDF

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Publication number
CA2506830A1
CA2506830A1 CA 2506830 CA2506830A CA2506830A1 CA 2506830 A1 CA2506830 A1 CA 2506830A1 CA 2506830 CA2506830 CA 2506830 CA 2506830 A CA2506830 A CA 2506830A CA 2506830 A1 CA2506830 A1 CA 2506830A1
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
pipeline
obstruction
disk
pig
shaped member
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Abandoned
Application number
CA 2506830
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Donald D. Savard
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Priority to CA 2506830 priority Critical patent/CA2506830A1/en
Publication of CA2506830A1 publication Critical patent/CA2506830A1/en
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • GPHYSICS
    • G01MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01VGEOPHYSICS; GRAVITATIONAL MEASUREMENTS; DETECTING MASSES OR OBJECTS; TAGS
    • G01V3/00Electric or magnetic prospecting or detecting; Measuring magnetic field characteristics of the earth, e.g. declination, deviation
    • FMECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F16ENGINEERING ELEMENTS AND UNITS; GENERAL MEASURES FOR PRODUCING AND MAINTAINING EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OF MACHINES OR INSTALLATIONS; THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL
    • F16LPIPES; JOINTS OR FITTINGS FOR PIPES; SUPPORTS FOR PIPES, CABLES OR PROTECTIVE TUBING; MEANS FOR THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL
    • F16L55/00Devices or appurtenances for use in, or in connection with, pipes or pipe systems
    • F16L55/26Pigs or moles, i.e. devices movable in a pipe or conduit with or without self-contained propulsion means
    • FMECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F16ENGINEERING ELEMENTS AND UNITS; GENERAL MEASURES FOR PRODUCING AND MAINTAINING EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OF MACHINES OR INSTALLATIONS; THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL
    • F16LPIPES; JOINTS OR FITTINGS FOR PIPES; SUPPORTS FOR PIPES, CABLES OR PROTECTIVE TUBING; MEANS FOR THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL
    • F16L55/00Devices or appurtenances for use in, or in connection with, pipes or pipe systems
    • F16L55/26Pigs or moles, i.e. devices movable in a pipe or conduit with or without self-contained propulsion means
    • F16L55/28Constructional aspects
    • F16L55/40Constructional aspects of the body

Abstract

A pipeline pig for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline and a method of use of the same. A first step involves providing a pipeline pig which carries an impression substrate and a contact sensor. A second step involves passing the pipeline pig along a pipeline. The contact sensor emits a signal should an internal obstruction be encountered.
The obstruction leaves an impression upon the impression substrate that is indicative of the size and circumferential positioning of the obstruction.

Description

TITLE OF THE INVENTION:
Pipeline pig for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline and method.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a pipeline pig, the purpose of which is to check an interior of a pipeline for obstructions and a method of use of the same.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Various pipeline pigs have been developed for the purpose of checking the interior of a pipeline for obstacles which might impede the movement of pipeline inspection devices in the pipeline or to locate change in diameter that may require attention.
Calliper pigs used in pipelines provide internal pipe measurements, but they are expensive to operate.
These pigs monitor all restrictions along a pipeline, regardless of size, and will normally collect a significant amount of data that requires interpretation by a technician or computer programs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline. A first step involves providing a pipeline pig which 2 0 carries an impression substrate and a contact sensor. A second step involves passing the pipeline pig along a pipeline. The contact sensor emits a signal should an internal obstruction be encountered. The obstruction leaves an impression upon the impression substrate that is indicative of the size and circumferential positioning of the obstruction.
2 5 According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a pipeline pig for detecting an obstnrction in a pipeline, which includes a body adapted to slide along an interior of a pipeline. A contact sensor is carried by the body. The contact sensor is adapted to produce a signal upon an internal obstruction being encountered. An impression substrate is carried by the body which, upon being struck by the obstruction, is adapted to be marked by 3 0 an impression that is indicative of the size and circumferential positioning of the obstruction.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features of the invention will become more apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the appended drawings, the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to in any way limit the scope of the invention to the particular embodiment or embodiments shown, wherein:
FIG.1 is a simplified side elevation view, in section, of a first embodiment of pipeline pig constructed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a simplified side elevation view, section, of the pipeline pig illustrated in FIG.1, encountering an obstacle.
FIG. 3 is a simplified side elevation view, in section, of a second embodiment of pipeline pig constructed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a front elevation view of a first embodiment of resilient member used in the pipeline pig illustrated in either FIG.1 or FIG. 3.
FIG. 5 is a front elevation view of a second embodiment of resilient member used in the pipeline pig illustrated in FIG.1 or FIG. 3.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Prefewed embodiments of pipeline pig will now be described with reference to FIG.1 through 5. A first embodiment of pipeline pig, generally identified by reference numeral 100, 2 0 will be described with reference to FIG. 1 and 2. A second embodiment of pipeline pig, generally identified by reference numeral 200, will be described with reference to FIG. 3.
Structure and Relationship of Parts:
Referring to FIG. 1 and 2, pipeline pig 100 is provided with supporting rubber 2 5 rings 10, 12 connected in series, one after the other. A front securing bolt 40, a rear securing bolt 38, an intermediate cylinder pig body 14, serve to connect and maintain the relative spacing of rubber rings 10 and 12. Ring 12 is securely fixed to the front of pig body 14 and ring 10 is fixed to the rear of pig body 14. The two rings 10-12 are at a constant spacing allowing the pig to be transported along a pipe.
A generally disk-shaped resilient member 20 ai~xed to carrier 24 by holder 21 and 23 are held in place by spacers 26 and 18. The pig is constructed so that either the resilient member 20 or the resilient de-formable member 42 is electrically conductive and is directly connected to electronics in electronics carrier 28. Carrier 24 is free to rotate around the cylinder body 14. Electronic carrier 28 and odometer assembly 30 is attached to carrier 24 causing carrier to be out of balance and force it to always rotate to the same position. As carrier 24 is free to rotate around body 14, the same segment of the resilient disc 20 will always be located at the six o'clock position. Thus when examining the resilient de-formable member 42 one can determine the clock location, size and shape of the restriction encountered. Member 42 can be made from resilient material such as thin metal or plastic. The resilient member 20 can be a complete unit, as illustrated in FIG. 4 or segmented as shown in FIG. 5 to allow for multiple indications showing and recording the clock position of each. Referring to FIG. 1 and 2, each segment of 20 is individually electrically connected to electronics in carrier 28 thus when different sections of the resilient member 20 contact pipe 32 the electronics will record the occurrence of the event and which segment made contact. The resilient member 20 has a smaller outside diameter than the inside diameter of the pipe 32. Resilient member 20 thus defines an annular void space 45 between its outer surface and the inner surface of the pipeline wall.
The radial width of the void 45 is predetermined and depends on the operational requirements of a particular application. It generally corresponds to the maximum 2 0 tolerable size of restriction at the inner surface of the pipeline 32 or industry code requirements.
Variations:
2 5 FIG. 3 shows pipeline pig 200, which is the same as pipeline pig 100, with the exception of the addition of resilient members 22 and 44. Any number of elements can be added. The number would be a function of the objective of the run.
3 0 Operation:
Pipeline pig 100 is propelled through the pipeline typically by a pressure differential at the front and rear ends of the pig, moving from the left to the right of FIG.1 and 2. Referring to FIG. 2, if an obstacle is encountered along the wall of the pipeline, which is radially in excess of the width of the void 45, the resilient member 20 or the respective segment 20 of the resilient member 20 is in contact with pipe 32.
When contact is made between the resilient member 20 and pipe wall 32, a conductive circuit is completed as wheel assembly 30 is in contact with pipe 32. A circuit can also be completed by having rubber either ring 10 or 12 made of conductive material.
Referring to FIG. 1, another alternative is placing a wire brush assembly 52 can be placed in front of rubber ring 10. The occurrence is recorded by the electronics in holder 28. As a result, information is now available that an obstacle, for instance, a partly closed valve or a dent, has been encountered. Eventually, the resilient member runs over the obstacle, the resilient member 20 returns to its position and is set to respond to another obstacle.
Referring to FIG. 3, by using multiple resilient different size members 20, 22, one can determine if the obstacle encountered is more substantial. Any number of resilient members can be used.
Referring to FIG. 1 and 2, a de-formable and mark-able resilient member 48 made of electrically conductive material the same as member 20 and a resilient mark-able member 48, for instance, of a mark-able, relatively thin sheet metal or plastic can be 2 0 mounted at the rear end of the pig. Its purpose is to determine if events recorded by the electronics are a result of the pig travelling through a bend or if the event was a result of a restriction. If at times the electronics malfunction and fail to give an indication of an obstacle, then such obstacle inevitably deforms the resilient mark-able members 42 and 50 will show that an event has occurred thus providing information that in fact there had been 2 5 failure to electronically monitor an obstacle was encountered. If there was no record of an obstacle and the mark-able resilient members are not be deformed, this would confirm that indeed no obstacle is present in the inspected section.
Whenever the pig detects a restriction, time may be recorded and saved for 3 0 analysis at the end of the inspection run. The information recorded may be fed to a computer that will correlate the time the restrictions were encountered with other tracking information and pipeline geographic position.

In this patent document, the word "comprising" is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article "a" does not 5 exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be one and only one of the elements.
It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that modifications may be made to the illustrated embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter defined in the Claims.

Claims (12)

1. A method for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline, comprising the steps of providing a pipeline pig which carries an impression substrate and a contact sensor;
passing the pipeline pig along a pipeline, the contact sensor emitting a signal should an internal obstruction be encountered, with the obstruction leaving an impression upon the impression substrate that is indicative of the size and circumferential positioning of the obstruction.
2. A pipeline pig for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline, comprising:
a body adapted to slide along an interior of a pipeline;
a contact sensor carried by the body adapted to produce a signal upon an internal obstruction being encountered;
an impression substrate carried by the body which, upon being struck by the obstruction is adapted to be marked by an impression that is indicative of the size and circumferential positioning of the obstruction.
3. The pipeline pig as defined in Claim 2, wherein the impression substrate is a resilient disk-shaped member having an outside diameter that is smaller than an inside diameter of the pipeline, thereby defining an substantially annular void between the disk-shaped member and the pipeline having a predetermined radial clearance.
4. The pipeline pig as defined in Claim 3, wherein the disk-shaped member is rotates freely, but is biased to a known rotational position.
5. The pipeline pig as defined in Claim 4, wherein the disk-shaped member is biased to the known rotational position by an unequal weight distribution.
6. The pipeline pig as defined in Claim 2, wherein the impression substrate is electrically conductive and serves as a contact sensor completing a signal circuit when struck by the obstruction.
7. The pipeline pig as defined in Claim 6, wherein upon being struck by an obstruction the impression substrate completes a signal circuit between the body and the pipeline.
8. The pipeline pig as defined in Claim 2, wherein more than one impression substrate is carried by the body.
9. The pipeline pig as defined in Claim 6, wherein the impression substrate has a plurality of segments separated electrically from each other, the segments being brought into electrically conductive contact when struck by an obstruction.
10. A pipeline pig for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline, comprising:
a body adapted to slide along an interior of a pipeline, the body having at least two supporting rings secured to the body in fixed spaced relation;
a resilient disk-shaped member carried by the body and serving as an impression substrate which, upon being struck by an internal obstruction is adapted to be marked by an impression that is indicative of the size and circumferential positioning of the obstruction, the disk-shaped member having an outside diameter that is smaller than an inside diameter of the pipeline, thereby defining an substantially annular void between the disk-shaped member and the pipeline having a predetermined radial clearance;
the disk-shaped member is affixed to a carrier sleeve which rotates freely about the body, but is biased to a known rotational position by weight of at least one of an electronics carrier or an odometer assembly carried by the carrier sleeve;
the disk-shaped member is electrically conductive and serves as a contact sensor completing a signal circuit between the body and the pipeline to produce a signal upon an internal obstruction being encountered.
11. The pipeline pig as defined in Claim 10, wherein more than one disk-shaped member is carried by the body.
12. The pipeline pig as defined in Claim 10, wherein the disk-like member has a plurality of segments separated electrically from each other, the segments being brought into electrically conductive contact when struck by an obstruction.
CA 2506830 2005-05-09 2005-05-09 Pipeline pig for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline and method Abandoned CA2506830A1 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA 2506830 CA2506830A1 (en) 2005-05-09 2005-05-09 Pipeline pig for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline and method

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA 2506830 CA2506830A1 (en) 2005-05-09 2005-05-09 Pipeline pig for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline and method

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA2506830A1 true CA2506830A1 (en) 2006-11-09

Family

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Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA 2506830 Abandoned CA2506830A1 (en) 2005-05-09 2005-05-09 Pipeline pig for detecting an obstruction in a pipeline and method

Country Status (1)

Country Link
CA (1) CA2506830A1 (en)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN101725834B (en) * 2008-10-24 2012-12-12 中国石油天然气管道局 Magnetic sensor for pipeline crawling device

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN101725834B (en) * 2008-10-24 2012-12-12 中国石油天然气管道局 Magnetic sensor for pipeline crawling device

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