Storage tank

Abstract

The invention relates to a storage tank which comprises a tank body, an air bag arranged in the tank body and an air pump for inflating and deflating the air bag. Compared with the prior art, the storage tank can be used for transporting bulk fine materials such as feed and cement raw materials and automatically dredging the bulk fine materials in the loading process. When materials are loaded, the air pump periodically inflates and deflates the air bag, so that the air bag is continuously expanded and contracted, the stable material stacking state in the tank body is continuously broken, the materials are redistributed, and gaps between the tank body and the materials are filled, and therefore the filling rate of the tank body is increased, the storage tank can replace manual material pushing, and automatic material dredging is achieved; the loading efficiency is improved, and potential safety hazards and efficiency fluctuation of manual operation are avoided. Besides, in the bulk feed transportation process, by means of the storage tank, the requirement for additional disinfection and killing of a transport vehicle and a common storage tank due to manual material pushing can be avoided, and then the labor cost and the disinfection and killing cost in the material loading process are reduced.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the bulk material transportation field, in particular to a storage tank. BACKGROUND

[0002] Bulk material transportation has the advantages of saving labor, low cost, high loading efficiency, etc. compared with bagged material transportation, and is gradually replacing bagged material transportation. The bulk material transport vehicle is a special logistics equipment for bulk material transportation, which is provided with a storage tank for storing materials. The top of the tank body is provided with a tank opening for loading materials, and the bottom is provided with a discharge opening for facilitating unloading of materials. Taking the actual transportation process of bulk feed transportation as an example, the staff of the feed factory usually loads the feed into the tank body from the tank opening through the discharging device, then transports the feed to the breeding farm by the bulk feed transport vehicle, and unloads the feed to the storage room of the breeding farm through the discharge opening. However, during the feed loading process, the feed will naturally accumulate in the form of a cone in the tank body, resulting in that the tank body cannot be completely filled, and thus the loading capacity of the tank body is low, i.e. the filling rate of the storage tank is low.

[0003] In order to improve the filling rate of the storage tank, the feed factory generally uses a raking rod for manual raking. However, this manual raking method has obvious defects. On the one hand, the efficiency of manual raking is low, and as the staff work for a long time, the physical strength gradually decreases, and the efficiency of manual raking is further reduced, which limits the overall loading efficiency of the feed. On the other hand, due to the limitation of the size of the tank opening of the storage tank, a certain angle will be formed between the raking rod and the top of the tank body during operation, which makes the raking rod mainly push the material downward at an angle to reduce the repose angle of the material accumulation, but cannot push the material horizontally to the top corner of the tank body, resulting in that the top space of the tank body cannot be fully utilized, and the further improvement of the filling rate of the storage tank is limited. SUMMARY

[0004] Therefore, the purpose of the present application is to provide a storage tank with high loading efficiency and high filling rate.

[0005] The present application can be realized by the following technical scheme: a storage tank comprising a tank body, at least one air bag, and a gas pump for inflating and deflating the air bag, wherein the air bag is suspended in the tank body and / or at least one end of the air bag is in contact with the inner wall of the tank body.

[0006] Compared with the prior art, the storage tank can be used for transporting bulk fine materials such as feed and cement raw materials. During loading of the materials into the storage tank, the storage tank is periodically inflated and deflated by the air pump to inflate and deflate the air bag in the tank body, so that the original stable material accumulation state in the tank body is continuously broken, the material is redistributed in the tank body, the gap between the tank body and the original accumulated material is filled, the filling rate of the tank body is significantly improved, and the storage tank can replace the traditional manual material shoveling, realizes the function of automatically dredging the material through the periodic inflation and deflation of the air bag, improves the loading efficiency of the material, and avoids the safety hazards and efficiency fluctuations that may be caused by manual operation. In addition, during the transportation of bulk feed, the use of the storage tank can also avoid the additional disinfection and killing demand of manual material shoveling on the traditional transport vehicle and the storage tank, thereby reducing the labor cost and disinfection and killing cost of the material loading process.

[0007] Further, the air bag is provided as one, and the air bag is arranged at the center of the horizontal direction of the tank body and opposite to the tank opening at the top of the tank body; or the air bag is provided as at least two, and the at least two air bags are uniformly distributed along the horizontal direction of the tank body.

[0008] Further, the distance between the air bag and the top of the tank body is less than or equal to the distance between the air bag and the bottom of the tank body.

[0009] Further, the storage tank further comprises a controller which controls the air pump to alternately inflate and deflate according to a preset time or a preset gas volume or a preset gas pressure.

[0010] Further, it further comprises a material sensor arranged close to the side wall of the tank body, the distance between the material sensor and the top of the tank body is between 15% and 25% of the height of the side wall of the tank body, and the included angle between the connecting line of the material sensor to the side wall of the tank opening and the horizontal plane is 30°±20°; when the material sensor detects that the material reaches the detection height, the controller is triggered to control the air pump to stop working after 10-15 times of inflation and deflation according to a preset time or a preset gas volume or a preset gas pressure.

[0011] Further, the storage tank further comprises an alarm, and when the material sensor detects that the material reaches the detection height, the controller is triggered to control the alarm to alarm.

[0012] Further, the controller is wirelessly connected to the warehouse door of an external material unloading device through a wireless module, and when the material sensor detects that the material reaches the detection height, the controller is triggered to control the warehouse door of the external material unloading device to close.

[0013] Furthermore, in the process of loading materials into the tank body, the controller controls the air pump to first alternately inflate and deflate according to a first preset time or a first preset gas volume, and then alternately inflate and deflate according to a second preset time or a second preset gas volume; wherein, the second preset time is less than the first preset time, and the second preset gas volume is less than the first preset gas volume.

[0014] Furthermore, it also includes a material height detection sensor, which is arranged on the side wall of the tank body and the distance from the tank top is between 5% and 15% of the side wall height; when the material height detection sensor detects that the material has reached its detection height, it triggers the controller to control the air pump to switch the airbag from alternately inflating and deflating according to a first preset time or a first preset gas volume to alternately inflating and deflating according to a second preset time or a second preset gas volume.

[0015] Furthermore, the second preset time is 0.3 to 0.7 times of the first preset time, and the second preset gas volume is 0.3 to 0.7 times of the first preset gas volume.

[0016] Furthermore, the storage tank also includes a material fullness detection sensor, which is arranged on the side wall of the tank body and is within 5% of the side wall height from the tank top; when the material fullness detection sensor detects that the material has reached its detection height, it triggers the controller to control the air pump to deflate the airbag to a fully deflated state and then stop working.

[0017] Furthermore, an anchoring assembly is provided at the bottom of the airbag.

[0018] Furthermore, it also includes a support rod and a cable, the support rod is fixed in the tank body, and its height is between the top and bottom of the airbag; one end of the cable is fixed to the top of the airbag or the outer wall of the airbag, and the other end is fixed to the support rod. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of the storage tank described in the present invention.

[0020] Figure 2 for Figure 1 A schematic structural diagram of an airbag according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

[0021] Figure 3 Schematic diagram of the structure of the airbag in the second embodiment.

[0022] Figure 4 for Figure 3 Schematic diagram of the structure of the flange assembly.

[0023] Figure 5 This is a schematic structural diagram of an airbag according to a third embodiment.

[0024] Figure 6 For Figure 5 The structure diagram of the air bag.

[0025] In the figure: 10 - tank body; 12 - tank mouth; 14 - tank cover; 20 - air bag; 22 - air bag cover; 24 - flange assembly; 241 - upper flange; 242 - lower flange; 30 - fixed rod; 31 - first cable; 32 - first lifting lug; 33 - second lifting lug; 40 - anchoring assembly; 52 - support rod; 54 - second cable; 60 - material sensor. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] The present application sets up a structure capable of automatically dredging material in the storage tank. Please refer to Figures 1-2 The present application provides a storage tank, which comprises a tank body 10, at least one air bag 20 arranged in the tank body 10, and an air pump (not shown in the figure) for inflating and deflating the air bag 20. During the process of loading material into the storage tank, the air bag 20 is alternately inflated and deflated by the air pump, so that the air bag 20 continuously expands and shrinks to push the material to move towards the side wall of the tank body, realizing artificial material removal; during the process of unloading material from the storage tank, the air bag 20 is alternately inflated and deflated by the air pump, so that the air bag 20 shakes off the material above it, avoiding cross contamination between different batches of materials caused by residual material.

[0027] Specifically, the tank body 10 is arranged on a transport vehicle and is in the shape of a hollow cylinder horizontally placed, the top of which is provided with a tank mouth 12, the outer side of which is hinged with a tank cover 14, and the bottom or the bottom side wall is provided with a discharge port, which can load bulk small materials such as feed, cement raw material, etc. The maximum volume of the air bag 20 is 1 / 20-1 / 50 of the volume of the tank body 10. In this embodiment, the design of the tank body 10 is full of 2-6 tons of loading capacity, the discharge port protrudes from the tank body 10, the depth is 30 cm, the size of the air bag 20 is 150L±50L, and the shape is preferably spherical or ellipsoidal, the pipe diameter is 400-600mm, and the length is 400-1000mm.

[0028] The air bag 20 adopts a rubber air bag or a three-layer thickened air bag, wherein the rubber air bag has high shrinkage rate, and its shape is close to spherical when fully inflated; the three-layer thickened air bag has high pressure resistance and high strength. The air bag 20 is suspended in the tank body 10, or one end or both ends of the air bag 20 is in contact with the inner wall of the tank body 10.

[0029] In one embodiment, the air bag 20 is provided as one, which is preferably arranged at the center of the horizontal direction of the tank body 10 and opposite to the tank opening 12 at the top of the tank body 10. In other embodiments, the air bag 20 is provided as at least two, which are preferably arranged uniformly along the horizontal direction of the tank body 10. The present application is described below by taking the embodiment of one air bag 20 as an example.

[0030] Further, a plurality of fixing rods 30 are arranged uniformly and circumferentially at the top of the air bag 20, and the two ends of the fixing rods 30 are fixed to the top of the air bag 20 and the sidewall of the tank opening 12, respectively, so as to facilitate the subsequent removal and replacement or repair of the air bag 20 through the tank opening 12. In other embodiments, the air bag 20 is installed upside down, and the two ends of the fixing rods 30 are fixed to the bottom of the air bag 20 and the bottom or sidewall of the tank body 10, respectively.

[0031] Since the air bag 20 is arranged at the bottom of the tank body 10, a large amount of material will accumulate above the air bag 20 as the material is continuously loaded, especially in the later stage of material loading. These accumulated materials will exert a large pressure on the air bag 20, resulting in a reduced expansion efficiency of the air bag 20. Moreover, as the material accumulates, the distance between the air bag 20 and the surface portion of the accumulated material in the tank body 10 gradually increases, which weakens the pushing force of the air bag 20 on the surface portion of the material, and thus significantly reduces the automatic dredging effect of the air bag 20 on the material in the later stage of material loading, and reduces the material filling rate of the storage tank. Furthermore, the air bag 20 arranged too low will affect the discharge of the material and reduce the discharge efficiency. Therefore, the air bag 20 is arranged at the middle and upper part of the tank body 10, i.e., the distance between the air bag 20 and the top of the tank body 10 is less than or equal to the distance between the air bag 20 and the bottom of the tank body 10. In the present embodiment, the distance between the air bag 20 and the top of the tank body 10 is between 20% and 45% of the height of the sidewall, and the distance between the air bag 20 and the bottom of the tank body 10 is also between 20% and 45% of the height of the sidewall, wherein the bottom of the tank body refers to the bottom of the hollow cylinder, i.e., the distance to the bottom of the tank does not include the depth of the discharge opening.

[0032] Preferably, the top of the air bag 20 is provided with a conical or arc-shaped air bag cover 22, which is connected to the air bag mouth of the air bag 20 by threads, and the top of the air bag cover 22 is fixed to the fixing rod 30, so as to prevent the material from accumulating at the top of the air bag 20, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the air pump used in the unloading process. Preferably, the air bag cover 22 is made of carbon steel, has a diameter equal to the pipe diameter of the air bag 20, and has a conical shape with a taper angle of 30° to 60°, more preferably 45°.

[0033] The air pump is an air pump for air extraction and air exhaust, which is communicated with the air bag 20 through an air pipe. In the embodiment, the air pump is arranged outside the tank body 10, an air pipe connecting port is formed in the side wall of the tank opening 12, and the air pipe is sealingly connected with the air pipe connecting port through an air pipe joint. In other embodiments, the air pump can be arranged inside the tank body 10 or at a material loading place such as a feed factory, and is detachably connected with the air bag 20. During material loading, the air pump and the air bag 20 are connected, and after the loading is completed, the air pump and the air bag 20 are detached. Further, the function of the air pump can be realized by the combination of the compressed air source of the transport vehicle and the air valve.

[0034] The working principle of the material storage tank is as follows: during the loading of the material into the material storage tank, the air bag 20 is inflated by the air pump, the material in the tank body is continuously expanded by the air bag 20 to exert a force on the material, the original repose angle of the accumulated material is destroyed, and the material is moved downward or to the edge of the tank body under the action of gravity and the pushing force; then the air bag 20 is deflated by the air pump, the volume of the air bag 20 is contracted, and the material above the air bag 20 collapses downward to realize the optimization of the distribution of the material in the tank body. The inflation and deflation are repeated until the material loading is completed, so that the air bag 20 can continuously break the stable accumulation state of the material and promote the redistribution of the material in the tank body 10 to fill the gaps at the edge of the tank body, thereby improving the filling rate of the material storage tank.

[0035] Compared with the prior art, the present application has the following advantages and effects: the air pump is used to periodically inflate and deflate the air bag in the tank body to automatically dredge the material, replacing manual material removal, and improving the loading efficiency of the material. By arranging the air bag at the center of the horizontal direction of the tank body and opposite to the tank opening, the uniform distribution of the force on the material is ensured when the air bag is inflated and expanded, and large gaps are avoided on the side wall of the tank body far from the air bag, thereby improving the material filling rate of the material storage tank. During the transportation of bulk feed, the use of the material storage tank instead of the traditional material storage tank with manual material removal can avoid the additional disinfection and killing demand of the traditional material storage tank, thereby reducing the labor cost and disinfection and killing cost in the material loading process.

[0036] During the use of the material storage tank, it is found that the material filling rate of the material storage tank often fluctuates between 85% and 95%, and the reason for the fluctuation is that the air pump is manually controlled to inflate and deflate the air bag 20, resulting in lack of stability in the entire control process.

[0037] In order to better control the flow of the air pump to the material, avoid the instability of the artificial control process to cause the fluctuation of the filling rate, the storage tank is further provided with a controller, which controls the air pump to alternately inflate and deflate the air bag 20 according to the preset time or the preset gas volume, so as to improve the stability of the filling rate of the material in the storage tank. The controller can be PLC, time relay, etc. As a preferred, when the material flows to stagnation (i.e. the material accumulates to its angle of repose), the controller controls the air pump to alternately inflate and deflate the air bag 20 until the material loading is completed, and the controller controls the air pump to stop working. Among them, the camera is arranged to observe when the material flows to stagnation, and the time when the material flows to stagnation can also be counted, and the time is used to determine when the material flows to stagnation.

[0038] In addition, the current discharging device includes a hopper and a discharging pipe matched with the storage tank, the outlet of the hopper is communicated with the inlet of the discharging pipe, and a gate is arranged, and the outlet of the discharging pipe is opposite to the tank opening during the material loading process. That is, during the discharging process, a certain amount of material remains in the discharging pipe after the gate of the discharging device is closed, therefore, in order to avoid material overflow, the gate of the discharging device is usually closed in advance during artificial control loading, and the closing time of the gate is uncertain, which causes the instability of the filling rate of the material in the storage tank.

[0039] Therefore, the embodiment studies the relationship between the residual material amount in the discharging pipe and the filling rate of the material in the storage tank, so as to optimize the flow guiding method of the air bag 20 to the material by controlling the closing time of the gate and the inflation and deflation times of the air bag 20. Specifically, the application adds a material sensor 60 to determine when to close the gate of the discharging device, the height of the material sensor 60 is determined according to the residual material amount in the discharging pipe and the designed full load material amount of the tank body 10, when the residual material amount is large and / or the designed full load material amount is small, the distance between the material sensor 60 and the top of the tank body 10 is large, when the residual material amount is small and / or the designed full load material amount is large, the distance between the material sensor 60 and the top of the tank body 10 is small.

[0040] In this embodiment, the amount of residual material in the downcomer is 80 kg, the material sensor 60 is arranged close to the side wall of the tank 10, the distance from the top of the tank 10 is 20% ± 2% of the height of the side wall, that is, the angle between the line connecting the material sensor 60 to the edge of the tank mouth 12 and the top of the tank 10 is 30° ± 20°, preferably 30°. When the material sensor 60 detects that the material reaches its detection height, the controller is triggered to control the air pump to continue alternating inflation and deflation of the air bag 20 for 10-15 times, and then stop working. The material sensor is selected from a travel switch, an ultrasonic distance measuring sensor, a radar, etc. In one of the embodiments, the material sensor 60 is fixed on the side wall of the tank mouth 12 by a sensor support, one end of the sensor support is fixed on the side wall of the tank mouth 12, and the other end is fixed with the material sensor 60, and the angle between the sensor support and the top of the tank 10 is 30° ± 20°.

[0041] The storage tank is also provided with an alarm (not shown in the figure), and when the material filling sensor detects that the material reaches its detection height, the controller is triggered to control the alarm to alarm to remind the staff to stop loading the material and avoid waste caused by excessive material overflow.

[0042] In other embodiments, the controller is wirelessly connected to the bin door of the external material feeding device through a wireless module, and when the material sensor detects that the material reaches its detection height, the controller is triggered to control the bin door of the external material feeding device to close; or the controller sends a bin door closing instruction to the control system of the external material feeding device through a wireless module, and the control system is electrically connected with the bin door to control the opening and closing of the bin door.

[0043] Specifically, when the air bag 20 is 150L, the inflation pressure of the air bag 20 is 0.7Mpa ± 0.3Mpa, the inflation time is 8s ± 3s, the deflation time is 10s ± 3s, and the limit inflation time is 11s. When the inflation pressure remains unchanged and the volume of the air bag 20 increases or decreases, the inflation time and the deflation time increase or decrease in proportion. When the volume of the air bag 20 remains unchanged, the inflation pressure is inversely proportional to the inflation time, that is, the inflation time can be reduced by increasing the inflation pressure, but too low inflation pressure will cause the air valve to fail to close, and too high inflation pressure will cause the inflation pipeline to be unable to withstand.

[0044] The first control method of the controller is that, during the process of loading the material into the storage tank by the discharging device, when the camera observes that the material flows to stagnation or the time of loading the material reaches the time of the material flowing to stagnation, the controller controls the air pump to inflate and deflate the air bag 20 alternately according to a first preset time, when the material sensor 60 detects that the material reaches its detection height, triggers the controller to control the hatch of the discharging device to close, or triggers the controller to control the alarm to alarm, so as to remind the staff to close the hatch of the discharging device, at the same time, the signal of the material sensor 60 also triggers the controller to control the air pump to continue to inflate and deflate the air bag 20 alternately according to the first preset time for 10-15 times, and then controls the air pump to stop working, which can improve the material filling rate to more than 96%.

[0045] In addition, the requirements of the degree of inflation of the air bag 20, the frequency of inflation and deflation and the like are different in different stages of material loading, and the above control method and the current manual control process are directly controlled by the air pump to inflate and deflate the air bag 20 according to the same inflation and deflation time, which does not accurately meet the requirements of different stages. When the manual control process can accurately meet the requirements of different stages, the material filling rate of the storage tank will be improved, otherwise, if the control process is out of touch with the actual requirements, the filling rate will be reduced. In order to further explore the influence of inflation and deflation of the air bag 20 on the material filling rate, the mechanism of the air bag 20 in different loading stages is analyzed in detail. In the early and middle stages of loading, the material is mainly located around and below the air bag 20, and there is less accumulation above the air bag 20, and the air bag 20 mainly pushes the material around the air bag 20 horizontally to the side wall of the tank. At this time, the longer the inflation time is, the greater the inflation degree of the air bag 20 is, the more the material it pushes and the farther the distance it pushes. When entering the later stage of loading, the material accumulated above the air bag 20 gradually increases, and the plane where the air bag 20 is located is basically filled with material. At this time, the air bag 20 first expands to press the material around and below the air bag 20, so as to move upward to fill the space of the side wall of the tank, and then the air bag 20 contracts, so that the material above the air bag 20 moves downward to fill the space collapsed by the contraction of the air bag 20. However, as the material accumulated above the air bag 20 gradually increases, the pressure of the material on the air bag 20 also gradually increases, which leads to the fact that the air bag 20 needs to inflate to the same volume, and the amount and time of the gas required are increasing, that is, the frequency of inflation and deflation is slow. At the same time, the gap between the material and the storage tank is continuously reduced, and under the premise that the material loading rate remains unchanged, the slower the frequency of inflation and deflation of the air bag 20 is, the higher the material accumulated above the air bag 20 is, and the more likely it is to overflow from the tank opening.

[0046] Based on the above analysis, in the early and middle stages of material loading, the single inflation time or the gas amount of single inflation can be appropriately prolonged to enhance the pushing effect of the air bag 20 on the material; and in the late stage of loading, the single inflation time or the gas amount of single inflation needs to be shortened to avoid material overflow.

[0047] To further clarify the influence of specific parameters of the control process on the filling rate of the storage tank, the present application uses a 1 / 10 scale model of the above-mentioned storage tank (the design full loading capacity of the tank body 10 is 5 tons, the pipe diameter of the air bag is 600 mm, and the length is 600 mm) for testing. The specific testing process is as follows: while the material is being loaded, the air bag 20 is inflated at a gas pressure of 0.5 MPa until the inflation time reaches t1, then the air bag 20 is deflated until all the gas in the air bag 20 is exhausted, and this inflation and deflation process is repeated n times; then, the air bag 20 is inflated again at a gas pressure of 0.5 MPa, but the inflation time is shortened to t2, and then the deflation process is started until the gas is exhausted, and this process is repeated m times. The test results show that when t1 is 10 s and n is 5 times, after repeating the inflation and deflation n times, the material filling rate of the storage tank can reach more than 95%, and when t2 is 5 s and m is 3 times, the final material filling rate of the storage tank can be stably maintained at more than 98%.

[0048] To make the control process accurately meet the needs of different stages of material loading, the present application proposes a second control method: during the process of loading the material into the tank body, the controller controls the air pump to alternately inflate and deflate according to a first preset gas amount until the filling rate of the storage tank reaches 85% to 95%, preferably more than 95%, and then the controller controls the air pump to alternately inflate and deflate according to a second preset gas amount that is less than the first preset gas amount until the filling rate of the storage tank reaches more than 96%, preferably more than 98%, and then the controller controls the air pump to deflate the air bag 20 to a completely deflated state and stop working to minimize the space occupied by the air bag 20 in the storage tank and avoid the influence of the air bag 20 on the filling rate of the storage tank. The second preset gas amount is preferably 0.3 to 0.7 times the first preset gas amount to avoid material overflow caused by the air bag 20 being inflated for too long or expanding too much in the late stage of loading.

[0049] In one embodiment, during the loading of the material into the tank, the controller controls the air pump to inflate and deflate alternately according to the first preset time until the filling rate of the storage tank reaches 85% to 95%, preferably 95% or above; then the controller controls the air pump to inflate and deflate alternately according to the second preset time which is less than the first preset time until the filling rate of the storage tank reaches 96% or above, preferably 98% or above, the controller controls the air pump to deflate the air bag 20 to the completely deflated state and stop working, so as to enhance the pushing effect of the air bag 20 on the material in the middle of the loading, and to avoid the material overflowing due to the air bag 20 inflating for too long in the late stage of the loading, while accelerating the inflation and deflation of the air bag 20 to accelerate the destruction of the material accumulation balance, thereby improving the filling rate of the storage tank. In this embodiment, the inflation pressure of the air pump is constant, that is, the time of inflation according to the first preset time is equal to the time of inflation according to the first preset gas volume; the time of inflation according to the second preset time is equal to the time of inflation according to the second preset gas volume, and is preferably 0.3 to 0.7 times the time of inflation according to the first preset time.

[0050] Further, the controller can control the air pump to inflate and deflate the air bag 20 at the same time as the material starts to be loaded (i.e. in the early stage of loading), so as to timely destroy the stable accumulation state of the material, promote the material to be distributed more evenly in the tank, reduce the time of local accumulation of the material in the tank, thereby accelerating the loading speed, improving the overall loading efficiency, and ensuring the safety and stability of the loading process; the controller can also control the air pump to inflate and deflate the air bag 20 when the material is loaded to the natural accumulation of the tank (i.e. in the middle stage of loading), so as to reduce the working time and intensity of the air pump, reduce the energy consumption of the air pump, and prolong the service life of the air pump.

[0051] In order to determine when the storage tank reaches the late stage of loading and when to stop inflating and deflating, the number n of times of inflation and deflation of the air pump according to the first preset gas volume or the first preset time and the number m of times of inflation and deflation of the air pump according to the second preset gas volume or the second preset time when the filling rate of the material in the storage tank reaches 98% or above can be determined through experiments. When the number of times of inflation and deflation of the air pump reaches n, the controller triggers the air pump to switch from inflating and deflating alternately according to the first preset gas volume to inflating and deflating alternately according to the second preset gas volume. When the total number of times of inflation and deflation of the air pump reaches n+m, the controller triggers the air pump to deflate the air bag 20 to the completely deflated state and stop working.

[0052] In practical applications, the tank body of the transport vehicle's storage tank has various sizes (i.e., different design full load capacities). The number of times of inflation and deflation required to make the material filling rate of different storage tanks reach more than 98% varies. If the corresponding control parameters are determined for each type of storage tank through experiments, not only the process is tedious, but also a lot of time and resources are consumed. Therefore, the present application quickly and accurately determines when the storage tank enters the late loading stage by adding a material height detection sensor (not shown in the figure). The material height detection sensor is arranged on the side wall of the tank body 10, preferably on the vertical side wall of the end of the tank body 10, and the distance from the top of the tank body 10 is between 5% and 15% of the height of the side wall. When the material height detection sensor detects that the material reaches its detection height, the controller triggers the air pump to switch from alternating inflation and deflation according to the first preset time or the first preset gas volume to alternating inflation and deflation according to the second preset time or the second preset gas volume. The material height detection sensor is selected from a travel switch, an ultrasonic distance measuring sensor, a radar, etc.

[0053] Further, the present application also determines when the storage tank stops inflation and deflation by adding a material fullness detection sensor (not shown in the figure), which is arranged on the side wall of the tank body 10, preferably on the vertical side wall of the end of the tank body 10, and the distance from the top of the tank body 10 is within 5% of the height of the side wall; when the material fullness detection sensor detects that the material reaches its detection height, the controller triggers the air pump to stop working after deflating the air bag 20 to a completely deflated state. The material fullness detection sensor is selected from a travel switch, an ultrasonic distance measuring sensor, a radar, etc. As a preferred, the material fullness detection sensor is arranged at the top corner inside the tank body 10.

[0054] Compared with the prior art, the above-mentioned storage tank realizes accurate regulation and control of material flow guidance through the controller, effectively avoiding the fluctuation of the filling rate caused by the instability of the manual control process; secondly, by designing a control process that can accurately meet the needs of different stages of material loading, the material filling rate is further improved, and waste caused by material overflow is avoided; by setting the material height detection sensor and the material fullness detection sensor to determine the nodes of different stages of material loading, the storage tank of the present application can flexibly adapt to different sizes of tank bodies, without the need for tedious experiments to determine the control parameters for each size of tank body.

[0055] In the above-mentioned storage tank, the air bag 20 is fixedly connected to the side wall of the tank opening 12 through the fixing rods 30. Since the number of the fixing rods 30 is limited and the length of the fixing rods 30 is fixed, the top region of the air bag 20 may bear relatively concentrated pressure when stressed, which is prone to stress concentration or fatigue fracture. Moreover, when the air bag 20 expands, it may directly or indirectly exert pressure on the fixing rods 30 through the air bag cover 22, affecting the service life of the fixing rods 30. In addition, once the air bag 20 and the fixing rods 30 are damaged, the maintenance personnel need to first disassemble all the fixing rods 30 from the tank opening 12 one by one, and then take out the air bag 20 from the tank body 10, so as to replace or repair the air bag 20 or the fixing rods 30, which is troublesome and time-consuming. In view of this, the present application optimizes the air bag 20 and the connecting structure thereof and the tank body 10 on the basis of the above-mentioned storage tank, and uses flexible first cables 31 to replace the original fixing rods 30.

[0056] Specifically, referring to Figures 3-4 , the top wall of the tank body 10 is provided with a plurality of first lifting lugs 32 uniformly and spacedly distributed along the circumference of the tank opening 12, the top of the air bag 20 is fixedly connected with a flange assembly 24, the top of the flange assembly 24 is provided with a plurality of second lifting lugs 33 uniformly and spacedly distributed along the circumference of the flange assembly 24, one end of the first cable 31 is connected with the first lifting lug 32, and the other end is connected with the second lifting lug 33, the number of the first lifting lug 32, the second lifting lug 33 and the first cable 31 is consistent, and the plurality of first cables 31 do not intersect with each other.

[0057] The flange assembly 24 comprises a detachably connected upper flange 241 and lower flange 242, the upper surface of the upper flange 241 is provided with the second lifting lug 33, and the upper flange 241 is provided with an air inlet through hole and an air outlet through hole. The middle part of the lower flange 242 is provided with a through hole, and the through hole is in communication with the air inlet through hole and the air outlet through hole. The opening at the top of the air bag 20 passes through the through hole and is sealingly arranged between the upper flange 241 and the lower flange 242, so that the air bag 20 is in communication with the air inlet through hole and the air outlet through hole. The total length of the flange assembly 24 is less than or equal to the pipe diameter of the air bag 20, and the shape of the top periphery of the air bag 20 is arc-shaped. The air pipe comprises an air inlet pipe and an air outlet pipe, which are sealingly connected with the air inlet through hole and the air outlet through hole through an air pipe joint. As a preferred, the pipe diameter of the air outlet pipe is greater than that of the air inlet pipe, so as to realize rapid exhaust, accelerate the contraction of the air bag 20 and the downward collapse of the material.

[0058] As a preferred, the top of the flange assembly 24 is provided with a conical or arc-shaped air bag cover 22, so as to prevent the material from accumulating at the top of the air bag 20, thereby reducing the energy consumption generated by using the air pump during the unloading process.

[0059] The elastic deformation of the first cable absorbs the impact load when the air bag is inflated and deflated, converts the air bag expansion force into uniform tension along the axial direction of the cable, avoids stress concentration caused by rigid constraint, thereby prolonging the service life of the fixed structure; at the same time, when the air bag is maintained, the air bag can be directly lifted out of the tank body through the flexible first cable without the need for additional disassembly and installation, and when a new and / or different size air bag is replaced, the flange assembly and the air bag can be directly replaced, or only the air bag and the lower flange plate can be replaced, which is convenient, fast and beneficial to cost saving.

[0060] Although the first cable 31 can facilitate the disassembly and installation of the air bag 20 and prolong the service life of the fixed structure, the flexible first cable 31 cannot fix the position of the air bag 20, so that the material accumulated in the storage tank pushes the air bag 20 to deviate from the center of the storage tank during the material loading process, for example, the material pushes the air bag 20 to float upwards, or pushes the bottom of the air bag 20 to move to the periphery of the tank opening, or even causes the air bag 20 to overturn, thereby affecting the flow guiding effect of the air bag 20 on the material. Therefore, the embodiment adds an anchoring assembly 40 to the bottom of the air bag 20, please refer to Figure 5 , the anchoring assembly 40 is preferably a circular cover plate, and the circular cover plate is concave towards the direction close to or away from the air bag 20.

[0061] After the anchoring assembly 40 is used to fix the bottom of the air bag 20, the central axis of the air bag 20 will still deviate from the central axis of the tank opening of the storage tank under the action of the material, for example, the top of the air bag 20 drifts to the periphery of the tank opening, thereby affecting the flow guiding effect of the air bag 20 on the material. Please refer to Figure 6 , the embodiment further fixedly provides a support rod 52 in the storage tank, and the air bag 20 is connected with the support rod 52 through a second cable 54. Preferably, a support rod 52 is arranged on each side of the top of the air bag 20, one end of the second cable 54 is fixedly connected with the support rod 52, and the other end is connected with the second lifting ring 33 on the flange assembly 24. Through the cooperative action of the first cable 31, the second cable 54 and the anchoring assembly 40, the air bag 20 is fixed, and the air bag 20 is prevented from floating upwards, overturning and drifting, thereby affecting the flow guiding effect of the material and causing the material filling rate to be unstable.

[0062] Test example

[0063] The amount of residual material in the discharge pipe of the discharging device used in this test example is 80 kg, the center of the air bag 20 coincides with the center of the tank body 10, the top of the air bag 20 is about 70 cm away from the tank opening 12, and the bottom is about 70 cm away from the bottom of the tank body 10. The bottom of the tank body 10 is provided with a conical discharge opening, the depth of the conical discharge opening is about 30 cm, that is, the distance between the bottom of the air bag 20 and the conical discharge opening is about 1 m, the angle between the connecting line of the material sensor 60 to the edge of the tank opening 12 and the top of the tank body 10 is 60°, and the length of the sensor support is 40 cm.

[0064] Referring to Table 1 below, the first control method is used for material loading: the air bag 20 is inflated at an inflation air pressure of 0.7 MPa, and when the material self-flows to stagnation, the controller controls the air pump to alternately inflate and deflate the air bag 20, and when the material sensor 60 detects that the material reaches its detection height, the alarm is triggered to alarm to remind the staff to close the bin door of the discharging device, and at the same time, the controller is triggered to control the air pump to continue to alternately inflate and deflate the air bag 20 for 10-15 times, and then the air pump stops working. Among them, the limit inflation time of the 100L air bag is 10s, and the limit inflation time of the 150L air bag is 11s, and the inflation time greater than the limit inflation time of the air bag may cause the air bag to explode.

[0065] Table 1 Test results of the first control method

[0066] Volume of storage tank Volume of air bag Number of pushes after closing the hatch Inflation time Deflation time Material fill rate 5 tons 100L 14 5s 8s 96％ 5 tons 150L 9 8s 10s 97％

[0067] Referring to Table 2 below, the second control method is used for material loading: the air bag 20 is inflated at an inflation air pressure of 0.7 MPa, and the controller first controls the air pump to alternately inflate and deflate the air bag 20 according to the first preset time, and when the material height detection sensor detects that the material reaches its detection height, the controller is triggered to control the air pump to switch from alternately inflating and deflating according to the first preset time or the first preset gas volume to alternately inflating and deflating according to the second preset time or the second preset gas volume. When the material fullness detection sensor detects that the material reaches its detection height, the controller is triggered to control the air pump to deflate the air bag 20 to a completely deflated state and then stop working. During the material loading process, when the material sensor 60 detects that the material reaches its detection height, the alarm is triggered to alarm to remind the staff to close the bin door of the discharging device.

[0068] Table 2 Test results of the second control method

[0069]

[0070] It can be seen that the first control method (inflating and deflating the air bag 20 with the same inflation and deflation time throughout the process) can increase the material fullness rate to 97%, and the second control method (first inflating and deflating according to the first preset time, and then inflating and deflating according to the second preset time smaller than the first preset time) can further increase the material fullness rate to 98%.

[0071] The present application is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications or changes can be made to the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application, and the present application also intends to include these modifications and changes if they fall within the scope of the claims and the equivalent technology of the present application.

Claims

1. A storage tank, comprising a tank body, characterized in that: The container further comprises at least one air bag and an air pump for inflating and deflating the air bag. The air bag is suspended in the tank body and / or at least one end of the air bag is in contact with the inner wall of the tank body.

2. The storage tank according to claim 1, characterized in that: The airbag is provided as one, and the airbag is provided at the center of the tank body in the horizontal direction, facing the tank opening at the top of the tank body; or, the airbag is provided as at least two, and the at least two airbags are evenly distributed along the horizontal direction of the tank body.

3. The storage tank according to claim 2, characterized in that: The distance between the air bag and the top of the tank body is less than or equal to the distance between the air bag and the bottom of the tank body.

4. The storage tank according to claim 1, characterized in that: It also includes a controller, which controls the air pump to alternately inflate and deflate the airbag according to a preset time, a preset gas volume, or a preset air pressure.

5. The storage tank according to claim 4, characterized in that: It also includes a material sensor arranged near the side wall of the tank body, the distance between which is from the top of the tank is between 15% and 25% of the height of the side wall of the tank body, and the angle between the line connecting the material sensor to the side wall of the tank mouth and the horizontal plane is 30°±20°; when the material sensor detects that the material has reached its detection height, the controller is triggered to control the air pump to alternately inflate and deflate according to a preset time, a preset gas volume or a preset air pressure for 5 to 20 times and then stop working.

6. The storage tank according to claim 5, characterized in that: It also includes an alarm. When the material sensor detects that the material has reached its detection height, the controller is triggered to control the alarm to sound an alarm.

7. The storage tank according to claim 5, characterized in that: The controller is wirelessly connected to the door of the external unloading device through a wireless module. When the material sensor detects that the material reaches its detection height, it triggers the controller to control the door of the external unloading device to close.

8. The storage tank according to any one of claims 4 to 7, characterized in that: During the process of loading materials into the tank body, the controller controls the air pump to first alternately inflate and deflate according to a first preset time or a first preset gas volume, and then alternately inflate and deflate according to a second preset time or a second preset gas volume; wherein the second preset time is less than the first preset time, and the second preset gas volume is less than the first preset gas volume.

9. The storage tank according to claim 8, characterized in that: It also includes a material height detection sensor, which is arranged on the side wall of the tank body and is at a distance from the tank top between 5% and 15% of the side wall height; when the material height detection sensor detects that the material has reached its detection height, it triggers the controller to control the air pump to switch the airbag from alternately inflating and deflating according to a first preset time or a first preset gas volume to alternately inflating and deflating according to a second preset time or a second preset gas volume.

10. The storage tank according to claim 9, characterized in that: It also includes a material fullness detection sensor, which is arranged on the side wall of the tank body and is within 5% of the side wall height from the tank top; when the material fullness detection sensor detects that the material has reached its detection height, it triggers the controller to control the air pump to deflate the airbag to a fully deflated state and then stop working.

11. The storage tank according to claim 1, characterized in that: An anchoring assembly is provided at the bottom of the airbag.

12. The storage tank according to claim 11, characterized in that: It also includes a support rod and a cable. The support rod is fixed in the tank body and its height is between the top and bottom of the airbag. One end of the cable is fixed to the top or the outer wall of the airbag, and the other end is fixed to the support rod.

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