US2078566A - Apparatus for washing the interior of tanks - Google Patents

Description

April 27, 1937. w. D. FL'ETCHER 2,078,566

APPARATUS FOR WASHING THE INTERIOR 0F TANKS Filed Sept. 12, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ATTORNEY April 27, 1937.

W. D. FLETCHER APPARATUS FOR WASHING THE INTERIOR OF TANKS Filed Sept. 12, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 E v j 59 34 v v fltglVEETOR I ATTORNEY wire brushes and the like.

Patented Apr. 27, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR WASHING THE INTERIOR OF TANKS William D. Fletcher, Staten lsland, N. Y., as-

signor, by mesne assignments, to Butterworth System Incorporated, a corporation of Delaware Application September 12, 1933, Serial No. 689,157

8 Claims. (Cl. 299-67) skin ,of the ship is utilized as the external wall, of the tank. On account of this, the beams,-

girders and other complicated fabricated members comprising the framework of the ship extend through the tank spaces and are covered with oil when the tank is filled. The presence of these members makes the cleaning of ships tanks more diflicult than that of land tanks, for land tanks are usually without obstruction other than a comparatively few and simple vertical columns. Cleaning tanks must be a thorough operation, for frequently a cargo of dirty oil, such as fuel oil, must be followed by one having high color requirements, as gasoline. In addition, when the tank or ship is to be repaired, it must be thoroughly cleaned to free it from anything apt to give rise to inflammable gases.

The oldest method of cleaning these tanks was that of entering them with a hose, handling high pressure water, and hosing down all of the oil that could be removed, then manually wiping and scraping the tank walls and steelwork with Hot water cleans more rapidly, and cleaning solutions might be used, except for the necessary limits introduced by ability of men to remain in the tank when they are used. To permit the use of hot water and the higher pump pressures available, a modification of an old device of the fire fighters, consisting of a set of nozzles, propelled by reaction forces of the water jetted, mounted on the end of a pipe for insertion into the hold has been adopted. These have enabled full use of the pressures and temperatures which have always been available, but due to installation upon the end of an inflexible pipe, have not been highly adapted to the problem. It has recently been proposed to make use of a self-propelled sprayhead, suspended by a torsion resisting hose, capable of the utmost flexibility of positioning, and it is with improvements in this type of equipment that this invention is specifically concemed.

In the present prior art type of spray-head,

so that the cleaning jets will be successively directed toward all points of the tank interior. Now in cleaning a tank by washing it, the time of the operation is largely determined by the rate at which water at effective pressure is delivered against the surface to be cleaned. Heata is more economical for all of the water to be formed into cleaning jets of high pressure, ro-

tative energy being taken from the water before jetting, because the slightly higher pump pressure so required can be gotten more cheaply than the heat thrown away in the water now sent through reaction jets.

It has therefore been an object of this invention to devise an apparatus for tank washing capable of delivering jets of great force, deriving its energy for rotation from the water so jetted, and delivering all of the water to such jets. A further object has been the development of a mechanism of this type, capable of adjustment for variable speed. Further objects have been the development of methods for the best use of such apparatus and such further objects and advantages as may hereinafter appear.

In order that my apparatus may be more carefully described, I now make reference to the drawings attached to and a part of this specification.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a section through my device, taken on the center line, and Figure 2 is another section, taken similarly along the centerline, but at a angle to Figure 1.

In Figure 1, the device, which is composed basically of two symmetrical hollow castings each forming a half case and split along the plane of the section of Figure l, is shown with the nearer half of the case removed. The body of the device is formed of two symmetrical shells I, adapted to be joined along the plane of centerline and provided with holes 2 wherein bolts may be placed for such joining. Centrally disposed within the casing, attached thereto, and similarly split, is a fluid tube 3, terminating in a plurality of nozzles 4-4, two of which are shown, and which may be of any convenient number and disposed in any manner about the lower end of split tube 3. The case ll is rotatably suspended from a tube 5, by cooperation with shoulder 6 on tube 5. Bearing material 1 serves also to pack the joint between 5 and I. Tube 5 extends upwardly without the casing l-l and terminates in there is a cylindrical socket, iii, carrying a bushing H, and on the same centerline there is an opening in the outer wall of the case l-l, carrying a bushing l2. Carried in these bushings is a rotatable nozzle assembly composed of two nozzles 63 and it, of a iorm'adapted for maximum conversion of pressure into velocity, mounted upon hub id, which sets within bushing it, and having for rigidity an outboard bearing within bushing ii in socket it by member 55, vwhich is attached to hub it by a plurality of fins l5. Fluid for the nozzles l3 and it may pass from the interior of the casing l-l between fins i6 and through hub id. Attached to'nozzles l3 and I3 is a gear wheel ll, adapted to mesh with gear wheel b. At one or more pointsin the fluid tube 3 there are apertures l, v

for a purpose later described.

Disposed adjacent the ends of nozzles 3 are vanes 99, supported by disc 2d, the nozzles and vanes cooperating to form a fluid motor whereby pressure cleaning fluid, entering through tube d and tube 3, in escaping to the region of lower pressure inside casing l-l is caused to develop a rotative motion. Disc 2b is attached to shaft 25 in a nonrotative manner and secured by nut 22. Shaft 25 passes without casing l-l through sleeve 23 containing bushing 26 and enters box 25. In box 25 by means of a worm and gear train, which may be of any nature suitable for the proper speed reduction, and design of which is not particularly pertinent to the present design except in size, the rotative motion of shaft 2| is communicated to gear wheel 26, lying without box 25 and contacting with gear wheel 11 on nozzles i3-l3'. Cooperation of gears 26, I1, and 9 cause the nozzles l3 and I3 to have two motions, the first a rotation about their own horizontal centerline, and the second a rotation about the vertical centerline of the whole device, these combining to cause the jets to be successively directed to all points of the interior of the tank in which-the spray is placed.

Turning now to Figure 2, which is a part sectional view on a plane at right angles to the plane of Figure 1, I attach reduction gear box 25 to the case i--l, by means of lug 21 and studs 28. In order that I may vary the speed of rotation of vanes l9 about nozzles 4 I make use of one or more apertures I8 in the side walls of tube 3. Each of these apertures I8, only one oil which is shown, lead to the interior of a cylinder 29 3ll, and within the cylinder 29 is another cylinder, with a like opening, the whole forming" a valve by which fluid may be passed from tube 3 to the inside of casing l without passing through nozzles 4. Cylinderv 3| is closed at its outer end and terminates in plug 32 having a wrench socket, the whole being retained in place by gland member 33 and packing 34.

The entire device is constructed of such dimensions that it might be lowered through an ullagepable ofbeing packed with oil for the lubrlca tion of the contained gears.

With the design shown, there are no major wearing parts so situated that they may be corroded by cleaning fluid or rusted seriously when laid by. The gears 26, Hand 9 may be quite rugged, and maintained simply by dipping in oil before laying away.

All of the portions having high grademachine work are contained within box 25 and thoroughly protected from contact with cleaning fluid. The only portion of the mechanism subject to serious trouble is wholly contained within that same gear box 25, and should trouble develop, it can be easily removed and another substituted. Ready access to the interior for cleaning and unusual maintenance can be had because of the split case feature. Variable speed can be had by adjustment of the amount of fluid passing through vanes it. The nozzles can be prevented from cyclic duplication of path, except at greatly extended intervals of time by use of an odd or hunting tooth in gear e.

The variable speed feature introducedthrough the use of valved outlets it is a valuable asset.

In washings. tank which has held clean, light oil of high color, theimpact force needed for the jets is not high, and relatively weaker streams of fluid can be used, with complete cleaning from comparatively few impacts. In

"this case, the by-pass valves are closed, the device operates at high speed, and through a proportionately greater fraction of the pump pressure is used for rotation, the streams have greater impact force.

This principle of variable force and velocity is not only applicable to this device, but may be widely applied to most of the prior art devices, both to those of the present general class and to those of the class which are suspended by means of a rigid member.

The pumping equipment used for cleaning purposes in tank ships has long been capable of greater pressures than those necessary for forming efllcient cleaning jets. In the operation of the above described washer, the pressure at the entrance of the nozzle may still be as high as that used at present, and the necessary pressure difierential for imparting rotative motion,

drawn from the existing reserve. Heat energy from the boilers to create this difierential of pressure, which need not be great, is more economical than heat energy used to heat' water which is later not formed into jets as in reaction jet driven equipment.

It is of course possible to design other mechanand all of these I consider to be equivalent to and within the scope of my invention, limiting following claims.

I claim:

1. A device for washing the interior of ship tanks and the like of the class adapted to be suspended by a laterally'flexible torsion resisting ical embodiments of the principles I make use of, I

fluid supply member, self propulsive, and having jets rotating simultaneously in two planes which intersect at an angle, which comprises a body adapted to rotate with respect to said supply member, within such body a fluid motor actuated by supplied fluid, means directing said fluid to said motor, by-pass means whereby a portion of the fluid may enter the body without passing said fluid motor, a plurality of jet forming nozzles communicating with the interior of such body, adapted to take fluid after passage through said fluid motor and convert its pressure into velocity, said nozzles being rotatably mounted on said body, means whereby the rotative motion of the fluid motor is communicated to the said nozzles, in such a manner as to cause them to rotate with respect to said body, and means whereby said motion is communicated to said body, in such a manner as to cause it to rotate with respect to said supply means.

2. A device for washing the interior of ship tanks and the like of the class adapted to be suspended by a laterally flexible torsion resisting fluid supply member, self propulsive, and having jets rotating simultaneously in two planes, which comprises a fluid carrying tube non-rotatably aiiixed to said supply member, a first gear wheel non-rotatably affixed to said tube, a hollow casing rotatably mounted on said tube, a fluid passage within such casing communicating with said first mentioned tube and terminating in nozzles within such casing, a disc rotatably mounted within such casing, and vanes upon said disc cooperating with said nozzles to form a fluid motor actuated by fluid passing from within the passage to within the casing, a plurality of jet forming nozzles adapted to transform pressure of the fluid into velocity, so mounted in the wall of said casing that they may rotate with respect thereto in a plane parallel to the fluid carrying tube and communicating with the interior thereof so that fluid from the interior of the casing may pass through such nozzles, a shaft driven by the fluid motor, a speed reducing gear train driven thereby, a second gear aflixed to such jet forming nozzles and cooperating with said gear train and the first mentioned gear, whereby motion of the fluid motor may cause rotation of the jet forming nozzles in a plane parallel to the casing center line and also may cause rotation of the casing with respect to the supply member.

3. A device for washing the interior of shiptanks and the like of the class adapted to be suspended by a laterally flexible torsion resisting fluid supply member, self propulsive, and having jets rotating simultaneously in two planes, which comprises a fluid carrying tube non-rotatably afiixed to said supply member, a first gear wheel non-rotatably afllxed to said tube, a hollow casing rotatably mounted on said tube, a fluid tube within such casing communicating with said first mentioned tube and terminating in nozzles with- Y in such casing, a disc rotatably mounted within the casing may pass through such nozzles, a shaft driven by the fluid motor, a speed reducing gear train driven thereby, a second gear ailixed to such jet forming nozzles and cooperating with said gear train and the flrst mentioned gear, whereby motion of the fluid motor may cause rotation of the jet forming nozzles with respect to the casing and rotation of the casing with respect to the supply member.

4. In a device for washing the interior of ship tanks and the like, a spray head comprising a fixed body, a hollow movable'body and fluid jet forming means rotatively mounted on said movable body communicating with and adapted to receive fluid from the interior thereof, means for rotatively securing the movable body to the flxed body coaxially therewith for rotation about their center line, a central passage for fluid through said fixed body, a fluid tube within said movable body communicating with said passage and with the interior of said movable body including means for diverting a portion of the fluid in the fluid tubeto said jet forming means without substantial diminution of velocity, means for directing the remaining portion of the fluid in the fluid tube to a means rotatively mounted within said movable body for converting the pressure energy of that portion of the fluid in rotative motion of said rotatively mounted means, means exteriorly secured to said movable body operatively connected to said energy conversion means and translating the rotative motion thereof to effect rotation of the jet forming means with respect to the movable body, and means cooperating with the motion translating means to rotate the 1 movable body relative to the fixed body.

5. A tank cleaning device, comprising a main feed pipe adapted to be vertically supported within a tank, a hollow casing rotatably mounted on said pipe, a chamber within said casing and, formed in the casing, a secondary feed pipe extending into the chamber, a drive shaft extending through one wall of the casing having a vaned disc on its inner end and connected at its outer end to a gear train carried by the casing, a plurality of nozzles on the secondary feed pipe to discharge against the vanes on said disc, a nozzle member, rotatably mounted exteriorly of the casing, communicating with the chamber therein, means, including said disc and gear train for effecting rotation of the nozzle member and of the casing and means in the casing and secondary feed pipe for regulating the speed of said rotation.

6. A device according to claim 5 in which the means for effecting rotation of the nozzle member and of the casing consists of a gear disposed inwardly of said member meshing with the final gear of said train and with a gear member formed by a flange on the main feed pipe.

7. A device according to claim 5 in which the means for regulating the speed of rotation of the nozzle member and of the caslngponsists of passageways formed in the casing and communicating with the secondary feed pipe and with the chamber by means of adjustable ports in the side walls thereof.

8. A device according to claim 5 in which the nozzle member is provided with a supporting member extending into the chamber, the end of said member being received by a bearing socket on the secondary feed pipe and rotatable therein.

WILLIAM D. FLETCHER.

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