GB2166833A

GB2166833A - Insulating pipe bundle

Info

Publication number: GB2166833A
Application number: GB08427346A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Robert Prentice Beckett
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1984-06-01
Filing date: 1984-10-30
Publication date: 1986-05-14
Also published as: GB2166833B; GB8427346D0; GB8413964D0

Abstract

A python bundle of pipes 1, 2 is machine made by wrapping the bundle continuously with adhesive tape 3 and thereafter enveloping it with an extruded insulating foam sleeve 4 which is continuously longitudinally slit at 6, passed around the bundle, and reformed in original configuration by contact adhesive. The final insulated bundle may be surface reinforced by a layer of polypropylene adhesive tape 5. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Automated process for insulating plastic tubes This invention relates to a continuous process for producing a bundle of plastic tubes within an outer insulating cover or sheath.

In recent years there has been a change in the way by which brewed drinks, like beers and lagers, are dispensed in licensed premises. With the advent of the pasteurisation process it has been possible to pre-gas filtered flat drink to a dispenser where it can be carbonated with carbon dioxide and delivered by means of the pressure of the same gas.

The standard lay-out in such premises, where a selection of drinks has to be delivered to the bar, is such that the kegs of brew are stored in temperature controlled conditions and delivered under gas pressure to the dispensers; generally the store is below the bar level in basement type compartments.

Since the beers must start and stop within the same approximate locations and since each must remain separate and be delivered discrete to each pump dispenser it became apparent that this could be best achieved by means of a flexible bundle of pipes which could be installed as conduit between the bar and keg store.

Also since the demand for drink at any time would not be continuous it was also apparent that beer which left the temperature controlled store could warm up to ambient temperature if it lay static in the conduit for some time. In order to overcome this problem the drink delivery system was fitted with a refrigerator or multi-cooler which generated water or brine at the temperature of the stored drink and circulated the coolant through the central core of the conduit bundle so that a closed circulation loop was established. This loop consisted of a central core extrusion in the form of a figure 8 which allowed coolant to pass up the conduit and return at all times irrespective as to whether or not any beer was being drawn.

Since thermal efficiency is important in all refrigeration systems it was obvious that such conduit bundles would be produced with an outer insulating sheath and invariably this is a fire-resistant plastic foam.

Up to the present such a conduit system has been manually constructed simply because it is not technically possible to extrude multipipes in a variety of different polymers. For example the drink pipes have to be in a food grade polymer, the figure 8 refrigerant line in cheaper polythene or PVC and the outer sheath in fire resistant foam. Also the drink conductors vary in number depending on the range offered by the bar and this can lead to an irregular package with possible extrusion difficulties.

The fact is therefore that drink conduits are hand made from coils of food grade polymer, PVC tubing, plastic tape and extruded foam in the form of bought-in sleeving. Great difficulties are experienced in "pulling-over" the foam insulant on to the pipe bundle and at present this is achieved by the liberal use of talc as a dry lubricant. The latter material is undesirable from the health and safety point of view but the main difficulty lies in the fact that whilst the beer line tubing can be purchased in long lengths the outer insulant sheath is only available in lengths of a few metres. It will be apparent that only short lengths of plastic foam can be "pulled-over" the conduit bundle and that each length will have to be accurately butted to its neighbour.

All these manufacturing difficulties are overcome in the present invention where there is provided an automatic means of constructing the previously described drink conduit bundle in a continuous manner.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 shows a section through a typical conduit and Figure 2 gives a flow chart of the materials of construction.

The food grade plastic pipes 2 are fed from stock coils and bundled together with the central coolant circulating pipe 1. This bundle is fed into a conveyor line which transports the bundle to a work station where it is automatically wrapped with self-adhesive tape 3 so as to give the package good enough rigidity and stability for the next work station along the line. Here there is fed in the lengths, or coils, of foam insulating sheath but it is in this case not "pulled-over" the bundle in the traditional manner; instead the sheath is automatically slit longitudinally at 6 and allowed to envelop the bundle. In the invention described the foam is slit and contact adhesive is applied to the cuts at the same operating station.

On the production line the slit surfaces are held apart by a triangular shaped separator whilst the adhesive is forced dried to a tack condition in a matter of 2 to 3 seconds. After this the edges are automatically brought together under slight pressure in order to reform the foam tube by the neat join 6.

When each length of insulant foam tube is fed into the production line its end is treated with contact adhesive so that good butt wells 7 are produced. The automatic operation is completed by the application of the separately wound protective polypropylene tape 5.

This process automatically produces the described drink conduit tubing and allows very long lengths of insulating foam to be used which would be impossible by the manual "pull-over" method.

Claims

1. A machine made insulated package of flexible, or semi-rigid, pipes some of which can transport drink, or other liquid, from one position to another and containing a set of pipes which can form a closed-loop for carrying refrigerated cooling water within the insulated bundle.

2. A pipe package, according to Claim 1, in which the cooling pipes are either separate or in the form of an extruded figure eight configuration.

3. A pipe package, according to Claim 1, in which the insulated foam has been applied by longitudinally splitting circular section extruded foam on the Python making machine and then causing it to envelop the pipe bundle, after which it is restored as a complete insulation tube by the use of roller wheel applied contact adhesive.

4. A pipe package, according to Claim 1, in which the bundle of flexible, or semi-rigid pipes are mechanically wrapped, on the Python making machine, with an adhesive tape before the application of the insulating foam as described in Claim 3.

5. A pipe package according to the above claims in which the finished insulated bundle is finally wrapped with high tensile polypropylene tape before being taken from the machine.