GB2337247A

GB2337247A - Hoist device for lifting/lowering a submersible pump

Info

Publication number: GB2337247A
Application number: GB9900639A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Hannu Sarvanne; Pekka Mattila; Juha Hellsten
Original assignee: E Sarlin Oy AB
Current assignee: E Sarlin Oy AB
Priority date: 1998-05-11
Filing date: 1999-01-12
Publication date: 1999-11-17
Anticipated expiration: 2019-01-12
Also published as: GB2337247B; FI104418B; FI981040A; FI981040A0

Abstract

A hoist device 8 for lifting/lowering a submersible pump 1 attached to a lift hook 7 comprises a guide assembly 11 pivotally connected to an automatic hook 9. The guide assembly comprises an elongated lever 16, inner and outer guide elements 13,14 eg. rollers, a body 10 and a counterweight 12. The automatic hook under control of the pivoting guide assembly is moved along guide rails 5 to grasp the lifting bail 15 of said pump. The elongate lever may be formed of two parts such that only the lever arm towards the guiding elements 13,14 is made tiltable and its rotation is limited by a spring. Swinging movement of the guide assembly may be limited by elastic members, shock absorbers or by increasing friction of the joint between automatic hook and guide assembly. The pivoting guide assembly facilitates unobstructed tilting of the pump during disengagement of the same from a submerged flange.

Description

2337247 Hoist device for lifting a submersible PUMP and lowering the S2BIC

h! A pumphouse The present invention relates to a hoist device for fitting a submersible pump and lowering the same on the bottom of a pumphouse such as a sewer system pumphouse, said lift device including a mechanically, hydraulically, pneumatically or electrically actuated automatic book that under the control of the hoist device can he moved along the preinstalled guide rails of said submersible pump down to grasp the hail of the submersible pump.

The lifting and lowering of submersible pumps in, eg., sewer system pumphouses has conventionally been implemented using a lift chain permanently attached to a hail of the pump. Herein, it has been problematic to verity the condition of the lift chain, particularly it it is used under wet conditions. Moreover, a pump connected to a lift chain cannot he hoisted in a single operation, but rather, a number of clumsy and possibly risky intermediate support steps must he carried out in order to change the position of the lift book Another conventional technique is to thread [i.e., fish) We lift book directly about the hail. This approach requires that the water level is below the hail so that the hail is visible. The method is not applicable in deep pump wells, because seeing and guiding of the book is impossible.

Many other methods are also known for booking a hoist device to the hail of a submersible pump. One of them is to use one or a greater number of guide lines as is described, e.g., in EP patent application no. 661,232 and BE patent publication no. 3,314,051. For the state of the art, reference is made to BE patent publication no. 19,543,525.

One of the problems hampering the lifting of a pump is that when the pump disengages from the submerged flange, the pump tends to tilt by about 240 toward the guide rails laterally supporting the upper part of the pump under the torque caused by the pressure-side nozzle of the pump and the weight of the sliding guide 2 assembly. However, a sliding guide assembly that is arranged to rest rigidly against the tubular guide rails prevents such a tilt movement, whereby the detachment of the pump from the submerged flange becomes jerky and the guide assembly additionally inflicts a lateral force on the tubular guide rails that stresses both the tubular guide rails and the guide assembly itself. Furthermore, it the tubular guide rails are covered with aggregate material, the guide assembly may jam thereon during the pump lift operation.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a hoist device which is tree from i o the above-mentioned shortcomings. The goal of the invention Is accomplished by means of an embodiment characterized in that the hoist device includes a guiding assembly comprising an elongated lever, inner guide elements and outer guide elements adapted to one end of said lever and a counterweight, that said guiding assembly is pivotally connected to an automatic book and that said inner guide is elements are located either above or below the pivot point of said lever, whereby the pivoting guiding assembly facilitates unobstructed tilling of the pump during the disengagement of the same from the submerged flange.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is characterized in that the lever of the guiding assembly is passed through the body of the automatic book thus placing the counterweight of the guiding assembly to the opposite side of the automatic book in regard to the guide elements, that the tilting of the guiding assembly Is limited in one direction and that the gravitational torque toward the side of the counterweight is made greater, whereby the guiding assembly in its unhindered position rests against the tilt limit stop.

Another preferred embodiment of the invention is characterized in that swinging of the guiding assembly is limited by means of elastic members, shock absorbers and the like mounted on the guiding assembly.

A still another preferred embodiment of the invention is characterized in that swinging of the guiding assembly is limited by means of increasing the friction of 3 the joint between the guiding assembly and the auto matic book The invention offers the advantage of Improved operating convenience as the pump is allowed to tilt during its detachment from the submerged flange.

In the following, the invention will he examined in greater detail with the help of exemplifying embudiments by making reference to the appended drawings, in which lo Figure 1 shows a submersible pump connected to a submerged flange, said pump having the hoist device allached thereto; and Figure 2 shows another embodiment of the hoist device according to the invention; Figure 3 shows an alternative embodiment of the hoist device according to the invendowand Figure 4 shows still another embodiment of the hoist device according to the invention.

The submersible pump 1 is held uravitationally connected to a submerged flange 3, which is permanently mounted on the bottom 2 of a pumphouse well and to which also a pressure pipe 4 is connected. The submersible pump 1 is lowered and hoisted under the guidance of guide rails 5, for which purpose the pump is equipped with aligning lugs 6. To the lift book 7 of the hoist is connected a hoist device 8 comprising an automatic book 9 [shown only schemadcally), a body 10, a guiding assembly 11 with a lever 16, a counterweight 12 mounted or formed to one end of the lever, and inner guide elements 13 and outer guide elements 14 mounted to the other end of the lever 16. Hanging from the lift book 7, the hoist device is lowered under the guidance of the pump guide rails 5 so low as to make the automatic book 9 to grasp the hail 15 of the submersible pump 1 in a conventional manner utilizing mechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic or electrical means, after which 4 the submersible pump 1 can he hoisted up.

During the lowering Of the submersible pump, the guiding assembly 11 can he omitted from the hoist device 8 as an irrelevant component. Actually, during the lowering of the pump, it is preferable to have the pump guided in place by its own aligning lugs 6 alone inasmuch the presence of the guiding assembly 11 of the hoist device 8 may affect the alignment of the pump in an adverse manner.

The mutual distance between the guiding assembly 11 and the hoist device body 10 is made adjustable onsite at the pumphouse by means at a telescopic mechanism, for instance. Such a fine adjustment way he necessary inasmuch the distance of the submersible pump hail 15 from the pump guide rails 5 may vary to some extent between individual pumps and installations at pumphouses. The fine adjustment is made in conjunction with the installation of the PUMPS.

is Essential in the invention is that the guiding assembly 11 is pivotally connected to the automatic book 9 and that the inner guide elements 13 are located either below [Hg. 11 or above [Fig. 21 the pivot point of said lever, whereby the pivoling guiding assembly 11 facilitates unobstructed tilting of the pump 1 during the disengagement of the same from the submerged flange 3. In Rg. 1 is shown a construction in which the lever 16 of the guiding assembly 11 is passed through the body of the automatic book 9 and the counterweight of the guiding assembly is thus placed to the opposite side of the automatic book in regard to the guide elements. In the situation of Rg. 1, the pump 1 is shown just detached from the submerged flange 3 and being lifted up.

For improved handling and operating convenience, it is advantageous to limit the tilting of the guiding assembly 11 in one direction and, to this end, the counterweight 12 is arranged so that the gravitational torque toward the side of the counterweight is made slightly greater than toward the other side. Thus, the guiding assembly in its unhindered position rests against the tilt limit stop 17 as shown in dashed lines in Fig. 3. Resultingly, excessive swinging of the guiding assembly is prevented. The swinging tendency may he further attenuated by elastic elements, friction or dampers (shock absorbers).

in Rg. 4 is shown an alternative arrangement in which only one hall of the guiding assembly is made tillable and its operation is controlled by means of a spring 18 spanned between the lever and the automatic book Herein, the lever of the guiding assembly must have a two-part construction, whereby the counterweight 12 is attached to the nontiltable part.

lo The guide elements 13 and 14 may he implemented using rollers or fixed projections. Obviously, rollers are a superior solution for counteracting the jamming tendency of the pump when sliding along the rails.

The guiding assembly 11 can he made from a lightweight material such as aluminium thus reducing the mass needed for the counterweight.

To those versed in the art it is obvious that the invention is not limited by the exemplifying embodiments described above, but rather, can be varied within the scope and spirit of the appended claims. The exemplifyino embodiment shown in the drawings has two guide rails. However, the invention may as well be applied to constructions having, for instance, only one tubular guide rail.

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Claims

Claims:

1. Hoist device for lifting a submersible pump (11 and lowering the same on the bottom (21 of a pumphouse such as a sewer system pumphouse. said lift device s including a mechanically, hydraulically, pneumatically or electrically actuated automatic book (9) that under the control of the hoist device can he moved along the preinstalled guide rails [51 of said submersible pump 111 down to grasp the hall 115) of the submersible pump, c h a r a c t c r 1 z c d in that the hoist device includes a guiding assembly (11) comprising an elongated lever 116) with inner guide ele lo ments 113) and outer guide elements (14) adapted to one end of said lever and a counterweight 112), that said guiding assembly 1111 is pivotally connected to the automatic book (9) and that said inner guide elements 113) are located either above or below the pivot point of said lever, whereby the pivoting guiding assembly facilitates unobstructed tilting of the pump during the disengagement of the same from a submerged flange (3).

2. Hoist device according to claim 1, c h a r a c t c r i z e d in that said [ever [16) of the guiding assembly 1111 is passed through the body of the automatic book (9) thus placing the counterweight 112) of the guiding assembly 1111 to the opposite side of the automatic book (9) in regard to the guide elements (13,14), that the tilting of the guiding assembly is limited in one direction and that the gravitational torque toward the side of the counterweight is made greater, whereby the guiding assembly in its unhindered position rests against the till limit stop (17).

3. Hoist device according to claim 1 or 2, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that swinging of the guiding assembly 111) is limited by means of elastic members, shock absorbers and the like mounted on the guiding assembly.

4. Hoist device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the swinging of the guiding assembly (11) is limited by means of increasing the friction of the joint between the guiding assembly (11) and the automatic hook (g).

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5. Hoist device according to any of claims 1-4, c h a r a c 1 c r 1 z c d in that the lever (16) of the guiding assembly 111) is designed with a two-part construction so that only the lever arm remaining on the side of the guiding elements (13,14) Is made ditable and its rotation is limited by means of a spring 118) spanned between the automatic book (9) and the lever of the guiding assembly 111).