EP2195509B1

EP2195509B1 - A way of constructing and renovating the pipeline especially an underground one, and a set of devices for using this method

Info

Publication number: EP2195509B1
Application number: EP08793969.0A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Waclaw Kuzniar
Original assignee: Przedsiebiorstwo Produkcyjno-Handlowe
Current assignee: Przedsiebiorstwo Produkcyjno-Handlowe
Priority date: 2007-09-03
Filing date: 2008-08-25
Publication date: 2014-02-26
Anticipated expiration: 2028-08-25
Also published as: PL383250A1; WO2009031910A1; EP2195509A1; PL216210B1

Description

The subject matter of the invention is a way of constructing and renovating the pipeline especially an underground one by using a diggingless method, and a set of devices for constructing and renovating this pipeline.
The known ways of diggingless making of the pipeline, that consist of a micro-tunnelling or a controlled pushing or pulling of the pipes into the ground from previously suitably prepared chambers, require big forces to overcome losses of considerable resistances in case of pushing in longer sections of these pipes.
Also known is the method of making pipelines "called "mini tunnel" wherein a support for a device which gets the soil, to build the next section of the pipeline, is the pipeline section previously made. However, to use this method we have to achieve suitable leakproofness and mechanical strength of the pipeline sections to be made, which is technologically difficult, therefore this method is mainly used to build pipelines whose diameter exceeds 1,0 m.
Known from US2385251 patent application a method of tunneling which consists of starting a boring, lining it as far as possible with a lining having a helical track on its inner face, mounting a travelling cutter -support frame to run on said track to carry a rotary extending in advance thereof, rotating said frame to run around said track screw-wise thereby advancing its rotary cutter into the working face, and continuing the lining in the wake of the cutter and in advance of the travelling cutter support frame to extend the helical track as the boring proceeds.
Also known from US39799117 patent application a drilling or tunneling system in which a first, relatively large diameter bore is made the loosened material is mixed with a stabilizing material, and a plurality of smaller permanent ducts are formed behind the boring unit. Power, control information, stabilizing material and excess material are conveyed to and from the unit by means of a series of mobile carrier units which travel through the smaller ducts and which function in the manner of an endless conveyor.
The purpose of the invention is to develop a way which will make it possible both to build underground pipelines and to renovate the existing ones with both big diameters exceeding 1,0 m and smaller ones below 1,0 m and with both big leakproofness and big mechanical strength. A further purpose of the invention is to develop a device for constructing and renovating the underground pipelines.
The way of constructing a pipeline, in particular an underground one, according to the invention, consists in that a coiling assembly of a coiling unit is installed in a working chamber and then, using the guide of that device, helical coils are coiled in screw motion from an elastic shape, a tongue and a groove on one surface of this shape being pushed at the same time into their corresponding tongue and groove on the other opposing surface of the elastic shape, and thereby a first tubular section of the pipeline is made, which section will constitute a support for a device to be placed in a cylindrical housing for excavating and transporting the material from the tunnel excavation; afterwards this housing together with the working chamber are moved forward and the cycle of making further sections of the tunnel excavations and of coiling, from the elastic shape, the helical coils and joining them together, as in the first cycle of the pipeline building, is repeated. In applying the way according to the invention we use an elastic shape, preferably made of plastic and somewhat similar to a flat band with at least one tongue and one groove on the edge of one surface and a corresponding tongue and groove on the other edge of the opposite surface.
It is useful for the tongues and grooves of the elastic shape to have snap elements on their lateral surfaces.
According to a variant of the way of constructing pipelines, according to the invention, wherein the pipe line is constructed from a tubular shape to be made by coiling an elastic shape of a diameter accordingly smaller than the diameter of the pipeline to be constructed, using the guide of the coiling assembly, its elastic shape is uncoiled and at the same it is coiled onto a bigger diameter to build a pipeline with a bigger diameter as required. It is useful to force a layer of material onto the outside of the coils coiled from the elastic shape with the cylindrical housing being moved along the pipeline.
It is also useful to additionally join the mechanically joined coils by means of welding while the elastic shape is being coiled on.
It is also useful to cover the tongues and grooves with two-component-adhesives while the elastic shape is being coiled on, the groove being covered with an accordingly one component and the tongue - with an adhesive of another component.
In turn, the essence of the method of regenerating the pipeline, according to the invention, lies in that the walls of the used pipeline are cleaned by means of a disk equipped with a milling cutter and then a new pipeline is coiled from the elastic shape in its interior using the above described method.
The essence of the equipment for building and repairing the pipeline according to the invention is in the fact that this equipment has additionally a device for coiling a pipeline which device is comprised of a container assembly, preferably in the shape of a rotary drum with an elastic shape coiled on it, a screwed toothed roll driven by an electric motor, and a unit for coiling the elastic shape, which unit consists of a threaded bush rotary seated on this roll and equipped with an arm whose second end is stiffly connected to the guide of the elastic shape on the drum.
The feeder of the elastic shape is equipped with a head which allows the shape being fed to be turned by 360° within the range equal to the length of one coil.
It is useful for the guide to have an element for cleaning the elastic shape.
It is useful for the guide to be equipped with a device for welding the pipeline coils.
It is useful for the guide to have a device for applying glue onto the surfaces of the tongues and grooves of the elastic shape.
It is also useful for the working and transporting device to be equipped with at least three hydraulic servos disposed symmetrically on the circuit of the supporting ring and circular disk, the two of them being disposed horizontally. In addition, the equipment has a disk with a milling cutter to clean the walls of the pipeline to be regenerator, or a stretching device.
An advantage of the method according to the invention is the fact that the pipeline section constructed by using this method has the required rigidity and mechanical strength, which makes it possible for us to achieve a resistance needed to overcome the resistances found when the soil is being worked and the excavated material is being transported inside the previously constructed pipeline by means of a working disk of the working and transporting device, and also to overcome the forces to be found while the cylindrical housing of this device is being moved, which in turn makes it possible to execute the next pipeline sections. By placing the working device in the cylindrical housing we can use this housing as a protection for a new pipeline section to be built. Furthermore, the structure of the elastic shape having tongues and grooves which cooperate with each other and have additional snap elements, said snap elements, when being coiled into tubular coils, being additionally joined by using a welding or pasting method, the said structure as described above makes it possible to get an entirely leakproof pipeline and of a big mechanical strength. A further advantage of the method and of the equipment according to the invention is the fact that they create the possibility , of regenerating used pipelines and executing a laser of injected material on the outside of the pipeline.
The subject matter of the invention is shown in the examples of its embodiment as far as the method of constructing and regenerating the pipeline is concerned and in the examples of its embodiment as presented in the figures as far as the shape and the equipment needed to use the above methods is concerned, where Fig. 1 shows an overall arrangement of the equipment required for building a pipeline, in a vertical section, Fig. 2 - layout of the working chamber together with the arrangement of the equipment required for constructing the pipeline using the plastic shape, in a vertical section, Fig. 3 - diagram of the working chamber with a arrangement of the equipment for constructing the pipeline using a pipe previously made out of an analogous shape, in a vertical section, Fig. 4 - a diagram of the working chamber with an arrangement of the equipment for renovating the pipeline while in operation using a plastic shape, in a vertical section, Fig. 5 - a diagram of the working chamber with an arrangement of the equipment for building a pipeline in a watered soil, in a vertical section, Fig. 6 - the plastic shape as used for building a pipeline, in a general view, Fig. 7 - a fragment of the pipeline as coiled from three coils of the plastic shape, in an axial section, Fig. 8 - a fragment of the guide of the shape at its being coiled into the shape of the pipeline in an axial section of the working chamber, Fig. 9 - a fragment of the two shape coils as joined together by using snap elements, Fig. 10 - a fragment of the guide together with its cleaning element for cleaning the shape at the time of its being coiled into a pipe, Fig. 11 - a diagram of the equipment as arranged in the working chamber according to Fig. 2, in a side view.
The equipment for constructing and renovating a pipeline is composed of a device 1 for working and transporting the soil and of a device 2 for coiling a pipeline 3 to be built or renovated.
The device 1 for working and transporting the excavated soil consists of a rotary working disk 4 driven by an electric motor coupled to the controlling group 7 by means of power leads 5 and 5' and power cables 6 and 6', of a pipeline 8 and 8'for taking away the excavated soil, and of three hydraulic servos 9. Some ends of the hydraulic servos 9 are seated in a circular disk 10 to be found just behind the working disk 4 and some ends - in a stopper ring 11, said ring constituting a stopper element for these servos, and all of the mentioned elements of this device being disposed inside a cylindrical housing 12, and the power leads 5 and 5' and power cables 6 and 6'and the pipeline 8 and 8' being composed of two sections connected to each other so as being separable.
In another execution example of this device, there are employed: one-piece power leads 13, power cables 14 and a pipeline for taking away the diggings. In case the existing pipelines are regenerated as shown in Fig. 4, instead of the working and transporting device 1, a milling cutter 41 for cleaning the existing pipeline is employed or a stretching device.
Further, the device 2 for coiling the pipeline 3 comprises a threaded toothed cylinder 16 seated rotary on a cylinder mandrel 17 one end of which is seated permanently in the housing of circular disk 10 of the excavating and transporting device 1, and a device 18 for coiling the elastic shape 19, said device consisting of a threaded bushing 20 seated rotary on a threaded toothed cylinder 16. The threaded bushing 20 is provided with arm 21 the other end of which is connected rigidly with the guide 22 for the elastic shape 19 coiled to form the shape of pipeline 3. Moreover, the threaded toothed cylinder 16 is mechanically coupled with electric motor 23 driving said cylinder and supplied with direct current from battery 24, said battery powering the working and transporting device 2, with all the mentioned elements of this device located also in the same cylindrical housing 12. The coiling device 2 is also comprised of an container assembly 25, a head 26 of the feeder, which head makes it possible for the shape during its being fed to be turned by 360° in a range equal to one coil length 39, a feeder 27 of the elastic shape 17, and of a starting ring 28; the feeder assembly 25 is composed of a support 29 and a drum 30 rotarily suspended on the latter and having a plastic elastic shape 17 coiled on it, second end of the said shape going through the head 26 of the feeder to the feeder 27 and then getting placed in the guide 22 of the coiling device 18, said guide having cleaning elements 31 to clean the coils of the elastic shape 19 coiled on it.
The shape 19 made of elastic plastic in the shape of a flat band has cut-outs on the ends of its wider surfaces opposing each other, which cut-outs constitute tongues 32 and 32' and grooves 33 and 33', said tongues and grooves having snap elements 34 and 35 on their lateral surfaces. In another execution of the shape, not shown, its tongues 32 and 32' and grooves 33 and 33'have no snap elements.
After having carried out, using the commonly known method, a starting chamber 37 in the soil 36, a mechanic excavation of the soil and a hydraulic transportation thereof take place inside the cylindrical housing 12 by means of a disk operating method to make a tunnel excavation, with a suitable support made for the disk starting. After the excavation has come up to the wall of the starting chamber 37, the device 1 for working and transporting the excavated soil and then the device 2 for coiling the pipeline 3 are to be installed, with the container 25 assembly of this device placed preferably on the surface of the ground 36. After having installed three hydraulic servos 9 of the working disk 4 and the stopper ring 11, we have at our disposal a working chamber 38 for building a first section of the pipeline 3. At the same time, in order that the guide 22 of the coiling device 18 has a helical motion, certain sections of the pipeline 8 and 8' and the power leads and cables 5 and 6 and 5' and 6' have to be separated and moved back for the hydraulic transportation of the diggings.
Then, after having placed the free end of the elastic shape 19 in the guide 22 of the coiling device 18, the electric motor 23 is to be started to make the threaded toothed roll 16 of the coiling device 18 turn. The helical motion of the elastic shape 19 by means of its guide 22 results in its being coiled into helical coils 39 and pushing the tongue 32 and groove 33 on one side of the shape into the groove 33'and tongue 32' on the other side of each coil 39. While the coiling goes on, the cleaning elements 31 of the guide 22 do clean the surface of the tongues 32 and 32' and grooves 33 and 33' while they are being pushed into each other, do apply glue onto the surfaces while they are being joined together, preferably a two-component glue, and do join the snap elements 34 and 35 of the tongues 32 and 32' and grooves 33 and 33' to finally provide a leak-proof section of the pipeline 3. The guide 22, as started by the electric motor 23 using the guide's arm 21, makes, in a helical motion, a suitable number of coils 39 on the entire length of the working chamber 38 and positions itself in a suitable position to correctly transfer the pressure forces from the hydraulic servos 9 of the working disk 4 through the stopper ring 11 to the pipeline 3 made. At that moment, the joining of all the sections of the pipeline 8 and 8' and the power leads 5 and 5' and power cables 6 and 6' and the beginning of a new building cycle of the pipeline 3 take place.
The threaded toothed cylinder 16 in the course of operating cycle of the working disk 4 is connected with said disk slidingly by means of cylindrical mandrel 17, and electric motor 23 immobilized by means of arm 21 causes rotation of said threaded cylinder in threaded bushing 20, after which the coiling device 18 returns to the staring position. After completion of work cycle of working disk 4, the threaded cylinder 16 is being immobilized by clamping on cylindrical mandrel 17, after which a new building cycle of the pipeline 3 take place.
In the next cycle, a next step of the tunnel excavation takes place and the actions are repeated as in the first cycle, with the working disk 4 provided preferably with sensors, not shown, which would determine its position in the soil and to have at least three hydraulic servos 9, which makes it possible for us to correct pipeline's trajectory and to carry out curvilinear pipelines, e.g. sewer traps under a river.
According to another execution example, on the pipeline 3, as shown in Fig. 3, there is used a shape in the form of a pipe 40 previously coiled from an elastic shape 19 with a diameter accordingly smaller than the diameter of the pipeline 3. According to this embodiment, the elastic shape 19 is uncoiled from the pipe 40 by means of the guide 22 of the coiling device and at the same it is coiled onto a bigger diameter to make the pipeline 3 with a diameter as required.
In this case, inside the pipe 40, there are power leads 13 and power cables 14 and the pipeline 15 to transport the diggings, and there is no need for them to be disconnected and connected again to construct further sections of the pipeline 3 as in the case when it is directly coiled from the elastic shape 19.
Furthermore, the method of regenerating the existing pipeline 42, as shown in Fig. 4, consists in cleaning, using a disk 10 having a milling cutter 41, the inner diameter of this pipeline and making a new pipeline 3' in its interior from the elastic shape 19 using the coiling device 18.
In a further example emodiment, not shown in a figure, of how a pipeline made out of concrete, stoneware or cast iron can be regenerated, the known equipment for stretching such a pipeline has been used, e.g. BURSTLING, and then a new pipeline has been executed from the elastic shape 19 using the coiling device 18.
In another example embodiment, shown in Fig. 5, of the pipeline 3 constructed in watered soils, the working disk 4 is equipped with a suitable head to prevent water from coming into the interior of the housing 12. An injection 43 made on the outside of the pipeline 3' proved to be useful. It was possible to execute this injection because during the cycle of excavating a tunnel in the soil and of moving the housing 12 it was also possible to simultaneously feed the inject 43 by means of the pipeline 15' using a suitable thickness of this housing.
In further examples of building and regenerating the pipeline 3 and 3', not shown in the figure, to improve its leakproofness, the coils, while being coiled from the elastic shape 19, have been additionally joined by means of welding using the known equipment suitably connected to the guide 22.
In further examples of building and regenerating the pipeline 3 and 3', not shown in the figure, to improve its leakproofness as well, we do proceed as follows: while the coils of the elastic shape 19 are being coiled, its surfaces of the tongue 32 have been covered by one component from a two-component glue and its surfaces of the groove 33 have been covered by another component of the two-component glue, the glue being fed from the known equipment suitably connected to the guide 22.

Claims

The method of constructing and regenerating a pipeline, especially an underground one, consisting in using a device for getting the soil and for transporting it, a tunnel excavation is made in the interior of a movable tubular housing serving as a working chamber, characterized in that in the working chamber (38) is installed a coiling assembly (18) of the device (2) for helically coiling, and using the guide (22) of that assembly, helical coils (39) of the pipeline (3 and 3') are coiled by means of screw motion from the elastic shape (19), and that at the same time a tongue (32) and a groove (33) on one surface of this shape are being pressed accordingly into a groove (33') and a tongue (32') on another corresponding opposite side of the elastic shape (19) and in this way a first tubular section of the pipeline (3 and 3') comes into existence; this section constitutes a resistance for the device (1) used to get and transport the soil and to excavate thereby a tunnel, said device being located in a cylindrical housing (12), that thereafter the housing together with the working chamber (38) are moved forward and the cycle of making next sections of the tunnel excavation and coiling the circular coils (39) from the elastic shape (19) and joining them together similarly as in the first cycle of building the pipeline (3 and 3') starts again.
The constructing method according to claim 1 characterized in that an elastic shape (19) is used, preferably made of plastic and in the shape of a flat band, with at least one tongue (32) and one groove (33) on the end of one surface and an analogous tongue (32') and a groove (33') on the other end of the opposite surface
The constructing method according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that the tongues (32 and 32') and grooves (33 and 33') of the elastic shape (19) have advantageous snap elements (34 and 35) on their lateral surfaces.
The constructing method according to claim 1 characterized in that using the guide (22) of the coiling assembly (18), from a tubular shape (40) executed with the coiling method of the elastic shape (19) and having a smaller diameter than the diameter of the pipeline (3) to be constructed, its elastic shape (19) is uncoiled and at the same time it is coiled onto a bigger diameter to construct the pipeline ((3) of a bigger diameter as required.
The constructing method according to claim 1 characterized in that onto the outside of the coils (39), that are being coiled from the elastic shape (19), a layer of injected material (43) is being forced from the pipeline (14) while the cylindrical housing (12) is being moved.
The constructing method according to claim 1 characterized in that during the coiling of the elastic shape (19) the mechanically joined coils (39) are additionally joined together by means of a welding method.
The constructing method according to claim 1 characterized in that during the coiling of the elastic shape (19) its tongues (32) and grooves (33) and tongues (32') and grooves (33') are to be covered with adhesives of diversified prescribed compositions.
The method of regenerating a pipeline, especially of an underground one according to claim 1 characterized in that the walls of a used pipeline (3) are cleaned by means of a disk (10) with a milling cutter(41) first and then in its interior a new pipeline (3') is coiled from the elastic shape (19).
The equipment needed for building and renovating a pipeline having a device for getting and transporting the soil characterized in that in addition it comprises a device (2) for coiling a pipeline (3) composed of a container assembly (25), preferably in the shape of a rotary drum (30) with the elastic shape (19) coiled in it, a threaded toothed cylinder (16) driven by an electric motor (23) and a coiling assembly (18) used to coil the elastic shape (19), said coiling assembly having a threaded bush (20) to be rotarily seated on this roll, an arm (21) whose second end is permanently connected to the guide (22) of the elastic shape (19) coiled on the drum (30).
The equipment according to claim 9 characterized in that a feeder (27) of the elastic shape (19) has a head (26) to make the shape (19) while its being fed to be turned by 360° on a length equal to one coil (39).
The equipment according to claim 9 characterized in that the guide (22) has a cleaning element (31) to clean the elastic shape (19).
The equipment according to claim 9 characterized in that the guide (22) has a welding device to get the coils (39) of the pipeline (3 and 3') welded.
The equipment according to claim 9 characterized in that the guide (22) has a device for feeding an adhesive onto the surfaces of the tongues (32 and 32') and grooves (33 and 33') of the elastic shape (19).
The equipment according to claim 9 characterized in that the device (2) for getting and transporting the soil is equipped with at least three hydraulic servos (9) suitably disposed on the circuit of the stopper ring (11) and circular disk (10), two of them being disposed horizontally.
The equipment according to claim 9 characterized in that it is equipped with a disk (10) having a milling cutter (41) to clean the walls of the pipeline (3), or with a stretching device.