GB2495695A - A fast erecting pylon with offset arms and a landmark component - Google Patents

Abstract

An electricity pylon transmission tower has arms which are not directly one above another but are offset in the direction of the conductor wires to facilitate insulator inspection and cleaning. See cleaning of insulator G2 by people on three gantries in Fig 4. The pylon can be erected quickly, using a winch (W1, Fig 11) and a crane (U1, Fig 11) shorter than the pylon, by fixing foot F1 and moving the base of pole B1 to meet foot F3. The pylon may incorporate a decorative component D1, such as a dinosaur, dragon or giraffe head, so that it may be treated as a landmark. The head may turn, and may include a lightning conductor.

Description

I

Title: Fast Erecting Electricity Pylon Transmission Tower with Offset Arms and Landmark Feature A device for holding high-tension cables.

Introduction and background to the invention.

The present invention relates to a mass-produced fast-erecting electricity transmission pylon with an arm arrangement to facilitate insulator cleaning and a landmark component.

Historically pylons have been constructed from lengths of angle-steel, laboriously bolted together on site into a lattice structure. Conductor wires carry the current from pylon to pylon. The key feature limiting the height and width of the pylon is the voltage being carried. The higher the voltage, the greater the distance required to prevent electricity jumping to earth or across conductor-wires in a phenomenon known as conductor-clashing or to the pylon itself in what is known as a Flashover.

Conductor wires are hung from glass or ceramic insulators. To avoid electricity jumping to the pylon the insulators need to be kept clean by washing with high pressure hoses or being blasted with crushed corncobs, pulverised limestone or other light abrasives. They may also need to be cleared of snow and ice in particularly harsh winters. Traditionally this has been carried out by workers clinging to the pylon or by a helicopter using a long tube to dispense the cleaning agent.

Set against the overall dimensions needed to carry high voltage is the need to reduce the impact of the pylon on the landscape. The traditional lattice pylon is made of angle-steel and the landscape beyond can be viewed through it. Whilst cutting, drilling and transporting lengths of angle-steel is cheap. bolting them together piece-by-piece on site is very labour intensive, usually taking a gang of twelve with cranes three weeks complete. Simple steel poles have recently been developed as an alternative to the lattice tower but these have to be of such a large diameter that they are less transparent than the lattice tower and require much deeper foundations but they are much faster to install. From a visual perspective neither pole nor lattice tower have found favour with the public.

Erecting either a lattice tower or pole requires a crane taller than the pylon and this massive crane has to travel to the site that is often difficult to access.

Pylons work well but are seen as blots on the landscape unlike a white chalk horse, which interferes with the landscape in no lesser way but is loved and seen as a landmark. Landmarks are often protected and listed so one embodiment of the invention is to give a pylon landmark appeal to help gain planning permission.

Statement of Invention

This invention sets out to reduce the visual impact of a pylon on the landscape, substantially reduce the time and man-power required to assemble, erect and decommission a pylon and provide a more visually acceptable and economic structure, which by design can be mass-produced on automated production lines as a component kit further reducing costs.

Furthermore unlike a pole or lattice tower, both requiring an even larger crane to complete the erection, an embodiment of this invention is capable of being erected by a winch or tractor tow, with the assistance of the small unloading crane to begin the lift. The same arrangement can also be used to lower the pylon for maintenance and decommissioning.

A further embodiment of this invention hangs the insulators from the front of the arm rather than centrally on the arm as in traditional pylon design. This together with offsetting the arms forward one above the other inline with the direction of the conductor-wires allows a clear view and access to clean the insulators not only from the arm itself but from the arms above and below furnished as maintenance platforms. This offsetting may be achieved by attaching the arms to a component set at an angle to the perpendicular. The angled component may be a single pole anchored in the ground supported entirely by its foundation or by legs or guys or the component may be an angled arm on a perpendicular or angled structure.

A traditional pylon has four legs for stability and on sloping ground legs need to be of varying lengths. One embodiment of the invention uses three legs and incorporates an adjuster plate so the uphill leg can be raised to keep the roll of the pylon perpendicular but the pitch and heading at the desired angle.

Today pylon installation faces public opposition, which prefers buried cables that are many times more expensive to install than pylons. Dinosaurs are enduringly popular and have always been the biggest draw at natural history museums long before Hollywood turned them into blockbusters. Shaping a component on top of the pylon into the head or skull of a dinosaur associates the pylon with dinosaur popularity, allowing the entire structure to be seen as a dinosaur landmark rather than a blot on the landscape. Rather than simply a decorative feature this embodiment of the invention, which may incorporate the lightning conductor, is primarily to assist in overcoming public opposition and gaining local planning consents. Due to the long neck of the structure a giraffe head or dragonhead makes a similar association though not as dramatic.

Embodiments of the invention Embodiment One (Side View Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5 and Front View Figure 6) This embodiment of the invention incorporates horizontal gantry arms El, E2, E3 and communications gantry CI for Telephone and Microwave equipment HI offset one above the other in the direction of the conductor wires on a perpendicular or angled pole BI fixed in the ground Zi to facilitate easy maintenance and cleaning of insulators Cl, 02, G3, 04, 05, 06 as in Figure 4 showing insulator 02 being cleaned from gantry arms El, E2 and ES.

Embodiment Two (Side View Figure 7, Front View Figure 8, Back View Figure 9, Assembled Flat Figure 10. Half Raised Figure 11, Erect Figure 12, Side View tension insulators Figure 15).

This embodiment of the invention is the same as Embodiment One but incorporates two legs Li and L2 anchored by pivots to the front feet Fl and F2 and to the pole Bi by a pivot P1 forming a tripod which may be raised by tractor or winch Wi Figure 11 assisted by an unloading crane Ui smaller than the pylon itself until the base Yl of the pole P1 sliding on temporary rail Xi is secured to the rearfootF3.

Embodiment Three (Three Quarter View Figure 13, Top View Figure 14, Side View Figure 7, Front View Figure 8, Back View Figure 9.) This embodiment of the invention is the same as Embodiment One but incorporates insulators 01, 02, 03, G4, 05, 06 suspended from the leading edge of the horizontal gantry arms.

Embodiment Four (Three Quarter View Figure 13, Top View Figure 14, Side View Figure 7, Front View Figure 8, Back View Figure 9.) This embodiment of the invention is the same as Embodiment One but the insulators are suspended from mirrored left and right curved tubular components Mi and M2 and joined to similar curved tubular components forming a gantry in which the mirrored components are fixed to the pole 81 and may be joined together at the back by varying widths of joining plates El, E2 and E3 supported by connecting rods of varying lengths Fl, F2 and F3.

Embodiment Seven (Side View Figure 20) This embodiment of the invention is the same as Embodiment two but incorporates and adjuster plate Ri to allow the uphill leg to be raised and connected to a higher foot foundation Fl than the lower leg F2 when crossing sloping ground.

Embodiment Eight (Plan view Figure 16) Shows a thirty degree light angle arrangement for turning the conductor wires through thirty degrees where suspension pylon SPI is inline with tension pylon TP1 and suspension pylon SP2 is turned through 30 degrees to tension pylon TP1 so that distance is maintained to prevent electricity jumping from the wires to the tension pybn TPI, which is what would happen if the arrangement was reversed.

Embodiment Nine (Heads Figure 17, Figure 18, Figure 19, Side View Figure 7).

This embodiment of the invention is the same as Embodiment One but with a andmark component which may resemble a dinosaur Figure 17, a dragonhead Figure 18, a giraffe head Figure 19 or other feature and may be pivoted to turn in the wind and may also incorporate a lightning conductor.

Claims (1)

1. <claim-text>Claims 1. An electricity transmission pylon where the arms bearing the insulators are not stacked directly above each other but are offset one above the other in the direction of the conductor wires to aid inspection and cleaning.</claim-text> <claim-text>2. An electricity transmission pylon as in claim I where a vertical pole component with offset horizontal arms bearing insulators carrying the conductor wires may be perpendicular or set at an angular pitch with a heading inline with the direction of the conductor wires.</claim-text> <claim-text>3. An electricity transmission pylon as in claim 1 where the extremities of the arms resolve in front of the centre of the arm and where the insulators are attached to the leading edge of each arm to aid inspection and cleaning.to aid inspection and cleaning.</claim-text> <claim-text>4. An electricity transmission pylon as in claim 1 where the insulators bearing the conductor-wires hang from tubing bent in a curve to maximize strength and minimize the cross section of the tubing.</claim-text> <claim-text>5. An electricity transmission pylon as in claim 1 supported by three legs where the uphill leg may be adjusted by an adjuster plate to adjust the roll of the pylon.</claim-text> <claim-text>6. An electricity transmission pylon as in claim 1 of prefabricated tubular steel parts including two pivoted legs so the entire pylon is capable of being assembled on the ground and then hoisted by way of winch or tractor assisted by a small crane to start the lift.</claim-text> <claim-text>7. An electricity transmission pylon as in claim 7 capable of being lowered by way of winch or tractor.</claim-text> <claim-text>8. An electricity transmission pylon as in claim 1 incorporating a landmark feature such as a dinosaur head or dragonhead or giraffe head or other feature to add empathy and assist with planning consents.</claim-text>