JP3266821B2 - Sealing plug device for leak inspection of existing piping system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for inspecting an existing piping system such as a gas pipe, a water pipe or the like for leaks by using an airtight system to check whether or not a leak has occurred. The present invention relates to a sealing plug device for leakage inspection used for closing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method for inspecting whether or not a leak has occurred in an existing piping system, an airtight inspection means is known. As a prior art of this airtight type inspection means, for example, as described in JP-A-63-120237, an inflatable and contractible sealing plug is inserted into a pipe,
After moving this to an appropriate position, it is inflated to close the pipe to form a sealed space between the sealing plug and the pipe end, and by detecting the presence or absence of a pressure change in the sealed space. This is to check whether a leak has occurred in the pipeline. In this prior art, a sealing plug is attached to the tip of a hose and inserted into a conduit, and pressurization and negative pressure are applied before and after the sealing plug to move the sealing plug to a desired position in the pipe.

However, in this prior art,
There is a disadvantage that the sealing plug or the hose provided with the inflatable body made of an elastic material such as rubber may be damaged during the movement of the sealing plug, and it is difficult to move the sealing plug to a desired place without fail. The applicant moves the inside of the pipe in a contracted state, expands it at a required moving position to close the pipe line, and attaches a hose to the sealing stopper for expansion and contraction of the seal plug. A feeding / suction mechanism for supplying / eliminating fluid pressure via the wire, an insertion wire consisting of a spiral coil spring surrounding the hose and having a tip connected to a sealing plug, and sending and pulling back the insertion wire, There has been proposed a sealing plug device for leak inspection of an existing piping system, which comprises a sealing plug moving mechanism for moving a sealing plug at a tip end to a desired position in a pipeline.

In the sealing plug device for leak inspection proposed by the present applicant, the movement of the sealing plug containing the expansion body in the capsule is as follows.
A helical insertion wire with a sealing plug connected to the tip is rotated around the insertion axis, and the rotation of the insertion wire is converted into axial movement by a feeding mechanism, and the insertion wire is switched by switching the rotation direction. Withdraws and pulls back. Here, in order to rotate the insertion wire around the axis, the storage drum to which the rear end of the insertion wire is connected is driven to rotate around the center axis of the drum, and the insertion wire is fed from a payout port provided on the center axis. It is done by withdrawing. The extra length of the pulled back hose and the insertion wire is stored inside the storage drum, and the rear end of the hose and the insertion wire is connected to the shaft of the storage drum.

[0005]

In the above conventional example, when the sealing plug at the tip is moved to a desired position in the pipeline, the rotation of the storage drum is stopped, and the fluid pressure is applied to the expanded body of the stopped sealing plug. And inflate it to bring the sealing stopper into close contact with the inner surface of the conduit. A leak inspection is performed on the section of the sealed pipeline, and the moving speed of the sealing plug is constant regardless of the pulling-out and pulling-back because the storage drum is driven by the motor having a constant rotation speed. (1 m / min).

For this reason, when the inspection target section of the pipeline is selected to be a long section, the sealing plug is inserted over a long distance, and when the inspection is completed, the sealing plug is pulled back over a long distance. Therefore, there is a problem in that the working time for the inspection is lengthened, and during that time the gas supply is stopped, which inconveniences gas consumers. It may be possible to deal with this by increasing the rotation speed of the motor or by setting the speed ratio of the transmission mechanism from the motor to the storage drum to a high speed ratio. When the speed is increased, there is also a problem that the working accuracy is deteriorated when it is desired to determine the feeding position of a short conduit having many bent portions or a sealing plug with high precision, and conversely the working efficiency is reduced.

The present invention has been proposed in order to cope with such a situation. The present invention is an improvement over the above-described conventional example, and has a long or short section, a pipe line having many bent portions, a long straight pipe line, or the like. An object of the present invention is to provide a sealing plug device for leak inspection of an existing piping system, which is versatile in any situation and can obtain appropriate work efficiency.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, a sealing plug device for leak inspection of an existing piping system according to the present invention is used to seal a predetermined section of the piping system and pressurize the section. This is a sealing plug device used for leak inspection of existing piping systems that detects leaks in pipelines by detecting pressure changes in the pipes.It is inserted into the pipes of existing piping, expanded at the required movement position, and removed from the protective cap. The pipe line is closed by swelling , contracted , and stored in the protective cap.
Desired position of the sealing plug to be movable in the tube, and feeding pressure-suction mechanism for supplying and eliminating fluid pressure against sealing plug for the expansion and contraction of said seal sealing plug, the pipe the sealing cap by And a driving unit for driving the sealing plug moving mechanism, wherein the driving unit includes a speed adjusting unit for changing a moving speed of the sealing plug.

[0009]

According to the above construction, the moving speed of the sealing plug can be varied from high speed to low speed, so that the highest speed can be set to the required speed by the rotation speed of the motor or the gear ratio of the transmission mechanism from the motor to the storage drum. If it is determined, when the sealing plug is inserted over a long distance into a straight conduit with few bends, it is moved at high speed, and work on short conduits with many bends and sealing plugs with high precision In this case, the versatility of the apparatus can be improved, such as moving the apparatus at a low speed when it is desired to insert the apparatus. Also, initially move the sealing stopper at high speed, switch to low speed when approaching the target position and stop the sealing stopper at the desired position,
Further, at the time of retraction after the end of the work, the work required can be performed, such as moving at high speed.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an external view of a sealing plug device for leak inspection according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes a sealing stopper, reference numeral 2 denotes an insertion wire, and reference numeral 3 denotes a hose. The distal ends of the insertion wire 2 and the hose 3 are connected to the sealing plug 1. In addition, a truck 4 having wheels 5a and 5b for movement.
Includes a pump 21 and a water supply tank 22 that constitute a pressure sending / suction mechanism, and a storage drum 3 that constitutes a sealing stopper moving mechanism.
3, a feeding mechanism 34, a guide cylinder 35, and a DC motor 31, a transmission means 32, and the like as driving means thereof are mounted.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the operation of the sealing plug device for leakage inspection according to the embodiment of the present invention. First, sealing plug 1
1 shows an example of a pressure-feeding / suctioning mechanism for supplying / removing fluid pressure via a hose 3 to / from the apparatus. Reference numeral 22 denotes a water supply tank,
Reference numeral 21 denotes a pump, reference numeral 23 denotes a pressure gauge, reference numeral 24 denotes a relief valve, and reference numerals 25 to 27 denote stop valves. A hose 3 provided inside the insertion wire 2 has a supply pipe 2 connected to a water supply tank 22 via a pump 21.
8 are connected by a rotary joint 36 in the storage drum 33. The pump 21 is an electric pump, and performs a compression or suction operation as shown by an arrow by an electric motor (not shown).
Are selectively opened and closed to supply water to the hose 3 and pressurize the sealing plug, or absorb water from the hose 3 and supply a negative pressure to the sealing plug. The pressure setting during pressurization is 4.5 kg / cm ² by the relief valve 24.
It is set to 5.0 kg / cm ² . Pump 2
A lock mechanism is provided on the handle portion of the pump 1 so that the operation of the pump 31 is locked when the pump 31 is compressed or sucked, so that the supply pressure state can be maintained.

In order to supply pressure to the sealing plug 1, the stop valve 26 in front of the water supply tank 22 is opened, and the pump 21 is operated to suck water into the cylinder of the pump. Then, the stop valve 26 is closed and the stop valve 27 is opened. In this state, the pump 21 is compressed to supply water and pressurize to the sealing plug 1 via the hose 3.

In order to make the sealing plug 1 movable from the closed state to the movable state, the stop valve 26 is closed and the stop valve 27 is opened. In this state, the pump 21 is sucked and sent into the expansion body of the sealing plug. The water is drawn back into the cylinder of the pump 21. As a result, the inflatable body contracts, but by further suctioning, a negative pressure is applied to completely contract the inflatable body and house it in the sealing plug 1.

Next, the sealing stopper moving mechanism and its driving means will be described. The storage drum 33 to which the rear end of the insertion wire 2 is connected is driven to rotate about the center axis of the drum.
By pulling out the insertion wire 2 from the pay-out port 33a provided on the central axis, the insertion wire 2 itself is rotated around the central axis. The accommodating drum 33 includes an accommodating portion for accommodating the extra length of the hose 3 and the insertion wire 2 pulled back inside, and the DC motor 31 capable of switching between forward and reverse rotation.
, And is rotationally driven via the belt transmission mechanism 32.
The rear end of the hose 3 is connected to the shaft of the storage drum 33, and this shaft is connected to the supply pipe 28 of the pressure-feeding / suction mechanism by a rotary joint 36.

The DC motor 31 includes rectifiers 51a, 51
b, a DC power supply 50 is connected via a main switch 52 for switching between forward / reverse rotation and ON / OFF and via a variable resistor 53 and a changeover switch 55 as speed adjusting means. As the speed adjusting means, for example, when the DC power supply 50 is set to 100 V, the speed adjustment is performed by changing the current value supplied to the motor 31 by changing the resistance value of the variable resistor 53. In addition, the variable resistor 53
Uses a three-stage switching type to provide low speed, medium speed,
It may be fast. With this configuration, if the sealing plug is to be moved at a high speed, the resistance value is lowered to increase the current value, and if the sealing plug is to be moved at a low speed, the resistance value is increased. Reduce the current value.

The structure of the sealing plug 1 and the structure of the feeding mechanism 34 in the above embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG . 3 is a sectional view of the sealing plug 1. In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a shaft, and the shaft 10 is
a and the rear part 10b. The front portion 10a of the shaft body 10 is formed with a convex portion at the rear, and the rear portion 10b is formed with a concave portion which fits with the convex portion of the front portion 10a at the front, and the concave and convex portions are slidably fitted. Thus, the entire length of the shaft body 10 is formed so as to be able to expand and contract in the front-rear direction.

On the side surface of the shaft 10, an inflating body 11 is mounted so as to straddle the front part 10a and the rear part 10b. The inflatable body 11 is formed of an elastic material such as rubber, and natural rubber (NR) and styrene-butadiene rubber (S
BR) synthetic rubbers are suitable. The form of the expansion body 11 is a barrel-shaped cylindrical body, the front end of which is a front part 10 a of the shaft body 10.
The rear end portions are hermetically attached to the rear portion 10b. A concave portion 1 is provided on the outer periphery of the central portion of the expansion body 11.
1a is formed, and the recess is filled with grease.

Further, a protective cap 12 is attached to an outer peripheral surface of the shaft body 10. The protective cap 12 is made of metal or hard resin, and is generally spherical as a whole.
The front half-split cap 12 which is divided into two parts at the center
a and the rear half-cap 12b are abutted. The front half-split cap 12a is
The rear half-cap 12b is attached to the front
0 is attached to the rear part 10b, respectively, and the protective cap 1
2 as a whole surrounds the outer periphery of the expansion body 11.

A fluid supply passage 10c is provided inside the shaft body 10, and this passage 10c is
Open into the fluid-filled space of the expansion body 11 on the side surface. A hose 3 connected to the passage 10c is attached to the rear of the shaft body 10, and an insertion wire 2 made of a spiral coil spring is attached to the outer periphery of the hose 3. A guide wire 13 is mounted in front of the shaft 10 in the traveling direction.

When the sealing plug 1 is inserted into the pipe, it is inserted in the state shown in FIG. In this state, since the inflatable body 11 of the sealing plug 1 is housed in the protective cap 12, the inflatable body 11 is not damaged even if a projection or the like is present in the pipeline, and the spherical protective cap 12 is not damaged. Is the outer shell of the sealing plug, so that it can move smoothly without resistance or snagging. Further, by the action of the guide wire 13 provided in the traveling direction of the sealing plug, even if there is a curved pipe portion, it can be smoothly inserted along the form of the pipe.

In order to move the sealing plug 1 to a required position and expand the sealing plug, the hose 3 is moved from the above-mentioned pressure-feeding / suctioning mechanism.
Pressure is supplied to the passage 10c of the shaft body 10 through the opening, whereby the expansion body 11 slightly expands, and the expansion body expands the shaft body 10, whereby the half-split caps 12a and 12b of the protection cap 12 are separated. A gap is formed therebetween. When the pressure is further increased, the inflatable body 11 swells out of the gap and expands in a cylindrical annular shape (tire tube shape) so as to be in close contact with the inner surface of the pipeline to close the pipeline. At this time, by filling the concave portion 11a on the outer periphery of the inflatable body 11 with grease, the resistance when the inflatable body 11 swells from the gap of the protective cap is reduced, and when the inflatable body 11 expands and closely adheres to the inner surface of the pipe. The presence of grease on the contact surface of
The surface of the expansion body 11 is protected, and the sealing effect is enhanced by the interposition of grease.

[0023] The feeding mechanism 34 will be described with reference to FIG. The feeding mechanism 34 is for bringing a guide member 36 having a groove corresponding to the helical pitch of the coil spring into contact with the insertion wire 2 pulled out from the feeding port 33a. When the guide member 36 comes into contact with the insertion wire 2, the rotating insertion wire 2 moves in the axial direction by one rotation of the helical pitch of the coil spring in one rotation.
As a result, the insertion wire 2 is paid out and returned. Further, here, an insertion amount display mechanism is provided, and the insertion amount of the sealing plug 1 is determined and displayed from the rotation speed of the storage drum 33 or the insertion wire 2. That is, the first gear 41 rotating with the storage drum 33 is provided with the second gear 4 at a predetermined gear ratio.
2 and the number of rotations of the second gear 42
Is displayed, converted to the insertion length and displayed. Also, the first
The gear 41 and the second gear 42 are detachably mounted.
When the insertion amount is not measured, the first and second gears are separated from each other.

In the present invention, the speed adjusting means provided for the driving means of the sealing stopper moving mechanism is not limited to the above-described example. As another example, it is also possible to provide a variable speed mechanism such as a continuously variable pulley in the transmission mechanism while keeping the rotation speed of the motor constant. In any case, any means for variably adjusting the rotation speed of the storage drum 33 is included in the technical scope of the present invention.

[0025]

According to the present invention, a predetermined section of a piping system is sealed, and a leak of an existing piping system is inspected by detecting a pressure change after pressurizing the section. A sealing plug device that is inserted into a pipe of an existing pipe and is expanded at a required moving position to close a pipe line and contracted to be movable in the pipe, and an expansion and closing of the sealing plug. Supply fluid pressure to the sealing stopper for contraction
A pressure-feeding / suctioning mechanism for removing the sealing plug, a sealing-plug moving mechanism for moving the sealing plug to a desired position in the pipeline, and a driving unit for driving the sealing-plug moving mechanism, wherein the driving unit includes a sealing plug. Since the speed adjusting means for changing the moving speed is provided, the moving speed of the sealing plug can be changed from a high speed to a low speed, so that the versatility of the device can be improved and the work required can be performed. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a sealing plug device for leakage inspection according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the operation of the sealing plug device for leakage inspection according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the sealing plug in the sealing plug device for leakage inspection according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a feeding mechanism in the sealing plug device for leakage inspection according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 sealing plug 2 insertion wire 3 hose 4 carriage 5a, 5b wheel 10 shaft 11 expansion body 12 protective cap 13 guide wire 21 pump 22 water supply tank 23 pressure gauge 24 relief valve 25, 26, 27 stop valve 28 supply pipe 30 central axis 31 DC motor 32 Transmission mechanism 33 Storage drum 34 Feeding mechanism 35 Guide cylinder 36 Guide member 41 First gear 42 Second gear 43 Counter 50 DC power supplies 51a, 51b Rectifier 52 Main switch 53 Variable resistor 55 Switching switch

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masao Kimura 26-Yokomachi, Inuyama-shi, Aichi (72) Inventor Keijiro Hori 7-2-5-704 Minamikasai, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo (56) References JP Akira 56-10093 (JP, A) JP-A-63-246596 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01M 3/26 G01M 3/28

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A sealing plug device used for a leak inspection of an existing piping system for checking a leak in a pipeline by detecting a pressure change after pressurizing the predetermined section of the piping system and sealing the section. The pipe is inserted into the existing pipe, expanded at a required moving position and expanded from the protective cap to close the pipe line, contracted and stored in the protective cap, , A sealing plug which can move inside, a pressure-feeding / suctioning mechanism for supplying / removing a fluid pressure to / from the sealing plug for expansion / contraction of the sealing plug, and a desired position of a pipe line with the sealing plug. And a driving means for driving the sealing plug moving mechanism, wherein the driving means includes a speed adjusting means for changing a moving speed of the sealing plug. Sealing stopper device for pipe system leak inspection. 2. The sealing plug moving mechanism includes a feeding mechanism for feeding or unwinding an insertion wire having a sealing plug attached to a tip thereof, and a storage drum for storing the insertion wire and rotating the insertion wire around an axis. The driving means includes a DC motor for driving the storage drum to rotate, and the DC motor is provided with an adjusting means for varying a supply voltage, and the adjusting means variably adjusts the rotation speed of the DC motor. 2. The sealing plug device for leak inspection of an existing piping system according to claim 1, wherein the moving speed of the sealing plug is adjusted.