FR2961006A1 - MODULAR SAFETY DEVICE FOR RECOVERING AND EXTINGUISHING FLAMMABLE PRODUCTS THAT CAN LEAK FROM AN ELECTRICAL TRANSFORMER - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a safety device for the recovery of dangerous products that can leak from an electrical transformer, said device comprising a so-called safety cover (15) to prevent said products from igniting and / or extinguishing the products on fire during their flight; said device is remarkable in that it consists of at least two sealed tanks (1) having means (5,6,7,8) for securing the containers (1) to one another and pipes (12) suitable for communicating said bins (1), at least one tray (1) having support means (10) of the transformer. The device according to the invention thus makes it possible to recover the entire volume of flammable products leaking from the electrical transformer without having to overemphasize the electrical transformer, the entire volume of flammable products being distributed in the different tanks (1). In addition, the device according to the invention provides a distribution of the entire load of the electrical transformer on a large surface for use on soft ground.

Description

MODULAR SAFETY DEVICE FOR RECOVERING AND EXTINGUISHING FLAMMABLE PRODUCTS THAT CAN LEAK FROM AN ELECTRIC TRANSFORMER DOMAIN OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a safety device for recovering flammable products that can leak from an electrical transformer, said device comprising a so-called safety cover to prevent said products from igniting and / or extinguishing the products on fire during their leak. The device according to the invention will find many applications in particular in the field of equipment for electricity distribution networks and in particular to pits or oil retention tanks for electrical transformers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is well known that electrical transformers, essentially used to change the voltage of a current, produce a large amount of heat that must be dissipated. The cooling of these transformers is ensured by immersing the cores and the windings of the transformers in a coolant and electrical insulator. This fluid consists of a dielectric such as mineral oils or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). Given the highly toxic nature of PCBs, PCBs being ubiquitous, bioaccumulative and persistent pollutants whose toxicity varies with their molecular weight (depending on the number of chlorine atoms) and the spatial configuration of their molecules, the power transformers used In the electrical networks are usually installed above a retention pit intended to collect the oil contained in these devices when a leak occurs. Usually, the pits arranged under the electrical transformers are filled with pebbles. In addition, it is recommended not to install a transformer in a place exposed to conditions such as road traffic, corrosive atmosphere or high heat. In addition, on the floor around the transformer there should be no drain to prevent any leakage of fluid is transformed, through the sewer system, into the natural environment. Such pits filled with pebbles do not provide sufficient safety in case of ignition of the oils, the fire can then spread and cause significant damage. In order to remedy this drawback, it has already been proposed that a tank or a pit be placed under the transformer to collect the liquid leaks typically based on hydrocarbons that can flow from the transformer, the protective cover that covers it including to it, typically, slats close together, steep, reserving between them 1 space ensuring the product flow access to ferry. Such a fire extinguishing system for polluting oil collection tank or pit has been developed and marketed by the plaintiff company, the company GMT, since 1996, under the reference BAF or IC. This type of system consists of a hood comprising slats close together, steep reserving between them a space ensuring said flowable products access to the tank or the pit while avoiding a sufficient supply of oxygen to allow to maintain a combustion of oils if they were to catch fire. Each slat is made of sheet metal folded so as to form a profile comprising an upper portion bordered on its longitudinal sides of two substantially vertical elements of different heights to create the inclination of the slat. Said vertical elements are folded in their lower part in the same direction to form generally horizontal bearing lugs, the support lug of the uppermost vertical element bearing on the support lug of the vertical element the lower. To improve safety, it has also been proposed an extinguishing device for 25 tank or polluting oil retention pit whose oil flow is faster. This is the case, for example, of the international patent application WO2009 / 016203 filed by the Applicant. The device comprises a cap covering a tank or a pit and having close slats, each slat having multiple flow slopes, reserving between them a space ensuring said flowable products access to the tank or pit. All these devices significantly improve the safety around electrical transformers by preventing any spread of a fire by stifling the latter in case of ignition of the oils and by allowing a recovery of the oils at the bottom of the tank or the pit by means of a pump or the like. However, for large transformers, it is necessary to perform major earthworks and construction of a reinforced concrete pit significantly burdening the duration of work and their costs. The costs are even greater when the ground is rocky, the nature of the soil requiring large technical means to dig a pit. In addition, when the soil is loose, it is sometimes impossible to perform such earthwork while ensuring a perfect seal of the pit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

One of the aims of the invention is thus to remedy these drawbacks by proposing a safety device for the recovery of dangerous products that can leak from an electrical transformer, said device comprising a so-called safety cover to prevent said products from being damaged. fires and / or extinguish products on fire during their flight, simple design, inexpensive, modular and can be used for any transformer size. For this purpose and in accordance with the invention, there is provided a safety device for the recovery of dangerous products that may leak from an electrical transformer, said device comprising a so-called safety cover to prevent said products from catching fire and / or to extinguish the products on fire during their flight, remarkable in that it consists of at least two sealed tanks with means for securing the bins together and pipes able to put in communication said bins, at least one tray comprising means for supporting the transformer.

Each tray has a substantially parallelepipedal shape comprising a horizontal bottom wall, two vertical transverse walls and two vertical longitudinal walls. The transverse walls of each tray protrude beyond the longitudinal walls to form fastener flanges on each side of the tray, each fastener flange having a plurality of holes adapted to receive bolts and nuts. Furthermore, in order to seal the connection between two adjacent tanks, the upper edge of one of the transverse walls of each tray comprises a U-shaped section whose concavity is oriented downwards, said profile U capped the upper edge of the transverse wall of the adjacent tray. In addition, the support means consist of at least two metal beams extending transversely to the upper end of or said bins.

Each tray has along its longitudinal walls, near its bottom, at least two holes adapted to receive a bent pipe for communicating two adjacent bins. Incidentally, each tank has a so-called overflow pipe extending from the bottom of the tank and opening along at least one of its longitudinal walls, near its upper edge. Advantageously, each tray has at its upper end a safety cap covering said tray and consisting of transverse lamellae. Preferably, the safety cover comprises slats with multiple slopes between them a space ensuring the flowable products access to the tray while avoiding a sufficient supply of oxygen to allow maintenance of a product combustion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other advantages and features will emerge more clearly from the following description of several variant embodiments, given by way of non-limiting examples, of the safety device according to the invention, with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a modular safety device for the recovery of transformer flammable oils according to the invention; FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a detail of the connection between two bins constituting the modular safety device for the recovery of transformer flammable oils according to the invention; - Figure 3 is a top view of the modular safety device for the recovery of flammable transformer oils according to the invention; FIG. 4 is a front view of the modular safety device for the recovery of transformer flammable oils according to the invention; FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the modular safety device for the recovery of Transformer Flammable Oils According to the Invention - Figure 6 is a detail of the cross-sectional view of the modular safety device for the recovery of flammable transformer oils according to the invention, - Figure 7 is a detail of a longitudinal sectional view of the junction between two tank of the modular safety device for the recovery of transformer flammable oils in accordance with the invention. 'invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following will be described, by way of non-limiting example, a safety device for equipment for electricity distribution networks and in particular for collecting oils fleeing electrical transformers; However, it is obvious that the safety device according to the invention can easily be adapted to any device comprising dangerous products, to all the tanks of dangerous products such as toxic or flammable chemicals, or the like without leaving the framework of the invention. Referring to Figures 1 to 5, the safety device according to the invention consists of three sealed tanks 1, obtained in stainless steel or galvanized steel for example, joined in pairs. Each tray 1 has a substantially parallelepipedal shape and comprises a horizontal bottom wall 2, two vertical transverse walls 3 and two vertical longitudinal walls 4. With reference to FIG. 6, the transverse walls 3 of each tray 1 protrude beyond longitudinal walls 4 to form on each side of the tray 1 of the attachment wings 5, each fixing wing 5 having a plurality of holes 6 adapted to receive bolts 7 and nuts 8. The fixing wings 5 provided with holes 6 receiving the bolts 7 and nuts 8 form means for securing the bins together. It goes without saying that these securing means could be substituted by any equivalent fastening means well known to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. Referring to Figure 7, the upper edge of one of the transverse walls 3 of each tray 1 comprises a U-shaped section 9 whose concavity is oriented downwards, said U-shaped section 9 to cap the upper edge of the transverse wall 3 of the adjacent container 1 to ensure the sealing of the connection between said bins 1. In addition, with reference to Figures 1 to 4, the central tray 1 of the device comprises means for supporting the electrical transformer, not shown on the figures. These support means consist of two metal beams 10 extending transversely to the upper end of the central tray 1. The spacing of these metal support beams 10 is equal to the spacing of the feet of the electrical transformer and the width of these beams is greater than the width of each foot of the electrical transformer. These metal beams 10 are secured to the longitudinal walls 4 1 0 by any appropriate means such as welding for example. In addition, with reference to Figures 1 to 6, each tray comprises along its longitudinal walls 4, near its bottom 2, at least two holes 11 adapted to receive a bent pipe 12 for communicating two adjacent tanks. In this particular embodiment, said holes 11 extend one above the other and respectively receive a bendable flexible conduit 12. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the flexible pipes 12 may be substituted by rigid pipes. In addition, each tray 1 comprises a so-called overflow pipe 13 extending from the bottom 2 of the tray 1 and opening along at least one of its longitudinal walls 3, near its upper edge.

It will be noted that the device according to the invention thus makes it possible to recover the entire volume of flammable products leaking from the electrical transformer without having to overemphasize the electrical transformer, the entire volume of flammable products being distributed in the different tanks 1. Thus the number of bins 1 used will depend on the size of the transformer and ultimately the volume of flammable products likely to leak. Furthermore, the device according to the invention makes it possible to distribute the entire load of the electrical transformer over a large area so that it is particularly suitable for transformers to be installed on soft floors. Incidentally, each tray comprises along one of its longitudinal walls 3 30 at its bottom 2 a drain valve 14. Particularly advantageously, each tray 1 has at its upper end a safety cap 15 capping said tray 1 and consisting of transverse lamellae 16. the safety cap 15 forming extinguishing means consist of a cap covering the tray 1 and comprising slats with multiple slopes 16 reserving between them a space ensuring the flowable products access to the tray 1 while avoiding a sufficient supply of oxygen to allow maintenance of a combustion of the oils. Each strip 16 preferably comprises two slopes 16a and 16b for the flow of the product, and preferably slopes 16a, 16b of identical surfaces separated by a single peak line 17. Such extinguishing means are described in detail in detail. in the patent application WO 2009/016203 filed by the Applicant. It is obvious that the extinguishing means formed by the safety cover 15 may be substituted by any other extinguishing means such as the extinguishing means described in the French patent application FR 0955356 filed by the applicant. It goes without saying that the device according to the invention may comprise only two tanks joined together or more than three bins joined in pairs depending on the size of the transformer under which the device must be placed, without departing from the scope of the invention. Thus, the device according to the invention consists of at least two sealed tanks 1 comprising means for securing the bins together and pipes able to put in communication said bins, at least one tray 1 having means for supporting the transformer . Finally, it is obvious that the examples which have just been given are only particular illustrations, in no way limiting as to the fields of application of the invention.

Claims (9)

REVENDICATIONS1. Safety device for recovering dangerous products that can leak from an electrical transformer, said device comprising a so-called safety cover (15) to prevent said products from igniting and / or extinguishing the products on fire during their leak, characterized in that it consists of at least two sealed tanks (1) comprising means (5,6,7,8) for securing the tanks (1) to one another and pipes (12) able to put into communication said bins (1), at least one tray (1) having support means (10) of the transformer. 2. Device according to claim 1 characterized in that each tray (1) has a substantially parallelepiped shape having a horizontal bottom wall (2), two vertical transverse walls (3) and two vertical longitudinal walls (4). 3. Device according to claim 2 characterized in that the transverse walls (3) of each tray (1) project beyond the longitudinal walls (4) to form on each side of the tray (1) fixing wings (5). ), each fixing wing (5) having a plurality of holes (6) adapted to receive bolts (7) and nuts (8). 20 4. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 characterized in that the upper edge of one of the transverse walls (3) of each tray (1) comprises a U-shaped profile (9) whose concavity is downwardly, said U-profile (9) capped the upper edge of the transverse wall (3) of the adjacent tray (1) to ensure the sealing of the connection between said bins (1). 5. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 4 characterized in that the support means consist of at least two metal beams (10) extending transversely to the upper end of said bins (1). 6. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 characterized in that each tray (1) comprises along its longitudinal walls (4), near its bottom (2), at least two holes (11) fit receiving a bent conduit (12) for communicating two adjacent bins (1). 7. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 6 characterized in that each tray (1) comprises a so-called overflow pipe (13) extending from the bottom of the tray (1) and opening along with at least one of its longitudinal walls (4), close to its upper edge. 8. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 7 characterized in that each tray (1) comprises at its upper end a safety cover (15) capping said tray (1) and constituted by transverse strips (16). 9. Device according to claim 8 characterized in that the safety cover (15) comprises slats (16) with multiple slopes between them a space ensuring the flow of access to the tray while avoiding a sufficient supply of oxygen to allow to maintain a combustion of products.