JPS6193100A - Discriminator for kind of liquid housed in storage tank - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a device for determining the type of liquid stored in a storage tank: Fl. The present invention relates to a liquid type discrimination device. This is used in the field of preventing confusion of liquid types when unloading different types of liquids from tank trucks to storage tanks.

[Prior art]

When unloading a desired liquid type at a gas station from a tank truck that transports liquids of the same or different types, such as gasoline, kerosene, or light oil, the storage tank containing each type of liquid may be selected differently or the storage tank If a refueling hose for discharging liquid is connected to a storage tank storing a different type of liquid, the type of unloading liquid and the type of stored liquid may not match due to the display of liquid type being faded.

In order to avoid such confusion of liquid types, connectors with built-in energizing bodies having different shapes are installed for storage tanks of different types of liquids, and energizing terminals that can be connected to any of the connectors are connected to the tank lorry. A device has been proposed that is installed to move along with a refueling hose, and is capable of determining the type of liquid contained in a storage tank by connecting its current-carrying terminal to a connector, thereby confirming whether unloading is possible.

However, if the liquid to be determined is highly flammable, electrically detecting the liquid type may cause a fire or smoke in the tank due to sparks or electrical leakage when connecting the connector. There is a problem that there is a possibility of falling into an extremely dangerous situation. In addition, in addition to connecting the refueling hose to the storage tank's inlet, it is also necessary to connect a cord that transmits the liquid type signal, so the tank truck must be stopped accurately at a predetermined position, and loading and unloading The problem is that the work is complicated.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to reduce misunderstandings and erroneous operations by operators when unloading a desired liquid type from a tank truck to a storage tank, and to provide a detection system for identifying liquid types. To provide a device for discriminating the type of liquid contained in a storage tank, which allows safe and simple unloading work while avoiding the risk of the liquid catching fire during work.

[Structure of the invention]

The features of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. A receiver 4 for receiving a liquid type signal is mounted on the tank truck 2, and a refueling hose 6 of the tank truck 2 is used for unloading the liquid. An optical switch 7 that turns on or off when connected is provided near the inlet 3m of each storage tank 3, and receives an on or off signal from the optical switch 7 to turn on or off the liquid contained in the storage tank 3. A frequency generator 11 is installed that generates or selects a frequency corresponding to the species;
A wireless transmitter 12 that transmits a liquid type signal at that frequency toward the receiver 4 is provided on the storage tank 3 side, and the received signal is manually transmitted to the operation command controller 17 mounted on the tank 11 and 2. This is a device for determining the type of liquid contained in a storage tank.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on examples thereof.

The tanker 2, which is equipped with a tank 1 consisting of a plurality of tank chambers IA to 1C as shown in Fig. A receiver 4 for receiving signals is mounted. This inputs a liquid type signal to an operation command controller 17, which will be described later, and the operation command controller 17 separately performs a predetermined control operation according to the liquid type determined from the signal. On the other hand, for example, the gas station 5 is provided with storage tanks 3a to 3C buried underground for storing various liquids individually and unchanged, and a refueling hose 6 of the tank lorry 2 is located near each injection port 3m. An optical switch 7 is provided which is turned on or off when connected. This optical switch 7 emits a light on/off signal by means of a light shielding plate 9 that advances and retreats into an optical path that is folded back by a prism 8 as shown in FIG. 2, for example.
For example, as shown in FIG.
When the refueling hose 6 is connected to the inlet 3m, the pressing member 6m pushes down the light shielding plate 9 of the optical switch 7 against the elastic force of the spring IO, thereby blocking the passage of light. For example, an off signal is output.

As shown in FIG. 3, the gas station 5 equipped with such optical switches 7a to 7c receives the off signal and generates a frequency corresponding to the type of liquid stored in the corresponding storage tank 3. Alternatively, a frequency generator 11 for selection is installed, and a wireless transmitter 12 is installed on the storage tank 3 side to transmit a liquid type signal of the selected frequency to the receiver 4 of the tank truck 2. And frequency generator 1
1 and the like, and an optical cable 13 consisting of an optical fiber 13M that transmits the light to the optical switch 7 and an optical fiber 13N that returns the light reflected by the optical switch 7 to the light receiving section I5. optical switch 7a
It is wired every ~7C. Note that the frequency generator 11
The optical switch 7 identifies which storage tank 3 the optical cable 13 from which the return of light has been interrupted belongs to, thereby determining the type of liquid contained in the storage tank 3 to which the refueling hose 6 is connected. It looks like this. As a result, for example, when the light in the optical cable 13b of the storage tank 3b is cut off by the optical switch 7b, the storage tank 3
A natural modulation frequency of 40011z corresponding to the light oil stored in b is selected or generated, and a different frequency such as 600)1z, 200Hz, etc. for gasoline or kerosene stored in the respective other storage tanks 3a, 3cm is selected or generated. is transmitted from the wireless transmitter 12. As shown in FIG. 4, this radio transmitter 12 emits an electromagnetic radio signal in which a frequency corresponding to the liquid type is carried on an electromagnetic wave with a carrier frequency of 260 MHz, for example. Signal tank truck 2
Since it is sufficient that the signal can be transmitted to the side, signals using ultrasonic waves, light, etc. can also be used. This signal is transmitted to the receiver 4 mentioned above.
The signal is received by the signal converter 16 and converted back into a signal representing the liquid type, which is manually input to an operation command controller 17 such as a microcomputer mounted on the tank truck 2.

This controller 17 operates in response to a contained liquid type signal detected according to the received frequency. An example of a simple operation command control is to light one lamp corresponding to the liquid type on the display panel 180 as shown in Fig. 5, or to emit the liquid type using an electronic sound. It has the function of

According to this embodiment, the type of liquid in the storage tank 3 is safely detected as follows and the tank row IJ2f)M
It is possible to classify the liquid type μI in the process, thereby preventing confusion of unloading or loading liquid columns due to operator's mistake.

Tank 1 of tank truck 2 is full of kerosene.

An example will be described in which light oil is individually stored in each tank chamber IA-IC, and kerosene is unloaded into a kerosene tank at a gas station 5.

As shown in FIG. 1, an operator connects the fuel supply bow 6 connected to the discharge pipe 20 to the inlet 3m of the kerosene tank 3C of the storage tank 3. At this time, the light shielding plate 9 of the optical switch 7 ( ) is simultaneously pressed by the pressing member 6m against the elastic force of the spring 10, so the light from the light emitting device #14, which is constantly emitting light, is blocked by the optical switch 7C. The light receiving unit 15 outputs an off signal, and the frequency generator 11 receives the signal and outputs the kerosene signal stored in the storage tank 3c corresponding to the optical switch 7c. is wirelessly transmitted from the wireless transmitter 12 to the receiver 4, and it is transmitted from the signal converter 16 to the operation command controller 17.
is input. The operation command controller 17 determines from the signal that the lamp is ready, and indicates that the storage tank 3C to which the refueling hose 6 is connected contains kerosene by lighting the lamp 19c shown in FIG. Or make an electronic sound. If such a display does not indicate kerosene, the operator connects the refueling hose 6 to the inlet of another storage tank and repeats checking one after another until the displayed liquid type is kerosene. When it is confirmed that it is kerosene, the bottom valve 23B is opened using the operating handle 22F3 provided on the tank chamber IB, and the discharge valve 21 is further opened. Even if a worker makes a misunderstanding or performs an operation during such work, and continues the work without noticing it, other workers can judge whether the work is correct or not from the lighting of the lamp 19c or the like. Therefore, it is possible to make it possible for a third party to point out the problem, or for the operator to reconfirm the problem himself, thereby reducing the frequency of discharging mixed liquid types.

In addition, the operation command controller 17 checks whether the specified unloading liquid type and the liquid type stored in the storage tank match, whether the loaded liquid type matches the liquid type stored in the storage tank, or whether the alarm generation command function or discharge is performed in the event of a mismatch. If the prevention command function etc. is activated, it will be possible to more reliably prevent confusion of unloading liquid types, and also ensure that the liquid type specified by the operator with a separate liquid type designator and the liquid type in the storage tank can be prevented. Confirm that the liquid type matches a, check whether the liquid discharged from the tank chamber and the liquid in the storage tank into which it is injected match, and check whether the liquid type is the same as the liquid discharged from the tank chamber. If the liquid is not discharged, an alarm can be issued, or a locking device separately installed on the discharge pipe or the like can be activated to automatically issue a command to prevent the discharge of liquid.

Since this kind of liquid type detection is performed using a luminescent sol, it is possible to eliminate electrical wiring near the storage tank. Even with highly flammable liquids such as the gasoline mentioned above, there is no spark or electrical leakage when connecting the connector, so extremely dangerous situations such as fire or tank explosion cannot occur. .

In the embodiment described above, unloading from one chamber of a tank that transports three types of liquids has been described, but if the tank is a multi-chamber tank with two or more chambers and handles two or more types of liquids, or It goes without saying that this method can also be applied to cases where cargo is unloaded into any one of a plurality of storage tanks, regardless of the number.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained in detail in the above embodiments, the present invention transmits a signal of the type of liquid contained in a storage tank to a frequency generator using an optical fiber, and sends the signal wirelessly to a tank truck to confirm the type of liquid. As a result, it is possible to avoid as much as possible the confusion of unloading liquid types due to misunderstandings or erroneous operations by operators. In addition, since electricity is not used for detection, it is possible to eliminate the situation where the flammable liquid ignites due to sparks or electrical leakage, thereby ensuring the safety of the liquid discharge operation. Moreover, since a coat is not required between the tank truck and the storage tank to transmit the liquid type, the tank truck can be stopped at an accurate position for unloading (although it can still perform its intended function).

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram of a liquid unloading operation using the storage tank storage tank type discrimination device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an optical switch,
FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the vicinity of the injection port of the storage tank, FIG. 4 is a transmission system diagram of a liquid type signal, and FIG. 5 is an example of a panel displaying detected liquid types. 2-・-tank truck, 3,3a~3c-storage tank, 3m inlet, 4-receiver, 6-refueling hose, 7.7
a~7cm optical switch, 11-frequency generator, 12-radio transmitter, 17-operation command controller.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A receiver for receiving liquid type signals is mounted on the tank truck, and an optical switch is installed near the fill port of each storage tank, which turns on or off when the tank truck's refueling hose is connected to unload the liquid. A frequency generator is installed which receives an on or off signal from the optical switch and generates or selects a frequency corresponding to the liquid type stored in the storage tank, and receives a liquid type signal of that frequency. storage tank housing, characterized in that a wireless transmitter that transmits signals to the storage tank is provided on the storage tank side, and the received signal is input to an operation command controller mounted on the tank lorry. Liquid type discrimination device.