Search, recovery and retaining grapnel for cordage, wire ropes and refuse, with a wide range of application

Abstract

The invention relates to a search, recovery and retaining grapnel for cordage, wire ropes, cables and refuse, with a very economical manner of production from sheet metal, stackable and with very large retaining force, also suitable for assembling towing gear units with a plurality of these grapnels. Very easy repair and economical replacement.

Description

[0001] Search, recovery and holding anchors for rope, wire and debris with a wide range of applications

[0002] Rope, debris, and wire ropes that are accidentally thrown overboard or otherwise lost can, apart from the environmental impact or economic damage that the loss of high-quality rope can cause, also pose a latent threat to shipping, particularly in temporarily very shallow waters, such as shallow tidal harbors. Such harbors are accessed by motor vessels at such low water levels that the propeller current sometimes sucks in the sediment on the bottom (7), along with any sunken, lost rope, resulting in a blocked propeller. Buoyant rope is very easy to retrieve using a boat hook or directly by hand.High-quality ropes with high tensile strength and a long service life, such as the widely used polyester or polyamide ropes, have a higher density than water and therefore sink to the bottom. Wire ropes, as well as those that are not stainless steel, can be lowered onto a line, located, and recovered using commercially available salvage magnets with high holding power. When searching for and recovering non-magnetic wire ropes, the same method as for ropes can be used (see below), provided the waters are very murky and no objects lying on the bottom can be seen, such as in all North Sea ports.

[0003] Typically, search drags or warp anchors are used for searching and retrieving, which are specially manufactured for this purpose. They are equipped with a varying number of flukes in various shapes, also corrugated or serrated, and sometimes even collapsible, as is known from FR 979 241 A. All of these known devices have in common that they do not pinch a rope caught on the ground (7) when being pulled over the bottom, or they create such high frictional resistance that it does not slip through. If the rope on either side of the anchor fluke has different drag when being pulled through the water, e.g. due to different rope lengths, the rope will slide unnoticed over the fluke. For this reason, success is only achieved if the operator is positioned fairly vertically above the site of discovery, e.g.on a boat, and the shorter end of the line is longer than the current water depth, the drag of the rope on both sides of the fluke is approximately the same. However, if such an anchor is used at a very shallow angle over a very long distance, for example when working from opposite banks of a body of water or when towing with a boat, the device will lose all ends caught during the towing for the reasons mentioned above. Another aspect is the manufacturing effort for such conventional devices, namely constructions made up of several manufactured parts welded together, which also cannot be stacked to save space, which is disadvantageous for storage and shipping. Cast or forged models, the individual parts of which are sometimes held together by bolts and screws, can also be found on the market.

[0004] In order to remedy these deficiencies, the invention described below was devised.

[0005] All of the design features described below can be manufactured using cost-effective manufacturing processes such as punching, cutting with guillotine shears, and spinning for deformation, without the need for parts joined by welding or screwing. This traditional manufacturing method is still one of the most energy-efficient, far ahead of lasers, plasma or flame cutting, sawing, or milling. Two long incisions are made on the straight, narrower side of a flat sheet metal body (1), e.g. made of steel, aluminum, or stainless steel, to create three sheet metal tabs. The middle one is the tension tab (2), which is provided with a tension eye in the working direction (5). This is located on the opposite, unslotted end of the sheet metal body (1) opposite the tension eye in the return direction (6).The two outer sheet metal tabs are each bent upwards and downwards in different directions, resulting in an upwardly bent fluke (3) and a downwardly bent fluke (4). To facilitate threading into the rope, it is advisable to bevel the flukes (3;4) towards the center as shown in Fig. 1. Rounding the rear edge reduces the risk of snagging and confusion when retrieving the device after it has accidentally become stuck in the working direction. The wedge-shaped opening gaps between the tension tab (2) and the flukes (3;4) determine the degree of clamping of any rope, wire rope, or other debris that gets caught between them and can be easily optimized experimentally by bending. Very sharp edges of the clamp increase the holding force, but at the expense of a greater risk of damage to the rope. The opening width at the outer tip between the flukes (3;4) and the tension tab determines the maximum diameter for the rope to be retrieved. Fig.Figure 2 shows a section, viewed from the working direction, through the towing eye in the working direction (5) and through the flukes (3;4) in the working position lying on the bottom (7). This clearly shows how the fluke (4) lying underneath ploughs through the sediment of the bottom (7) (shown in dashed lines) and can thus pick up rope sunk into the sediment. The arrangement of the flukes (3;4) and the towing lug (2) relative to one another always results in a functional working position, even after rotation upside down. A further embodiment of the invention by applying an anti-slip coating to the flukes (3;4) and the towing lug (2) or replaceable covers made of such material is conceivable. Due to the described mode of operation, this device is also suitable for water management for the regular removal of debris, for example in pond farms, bathing lakes or harbor basins, because even old hose remnants, cables, nets and tarpaulins, etc. can be caught by this anchor.If such an anchor is operated from a floating piece of equipment, it is sufficient to attach a trip line to the rear towing eyelet that is slightly longer than the maximum working depth. At the other end of the trip line is attached, which can be used to grab the trip line and retrieve the anchor if the anchor becomes unmoored. Several of these anchors can be assembled to form entire towing gears, e.g. mounted on a towing beam. For this purpose, the anchors are conveniently attached to the towing eyes in the working direction (5) with swivel shackles to a towing beam. The towing beam can be tared using buoyancy bodies so that it floats above the bottom but cannot lift the anchors off the bottom.The trip lines of the individual anchors are led aft to a beam floating on the water, the same length as the towing beam, and are attached to it at the same lateral distance from each other as the distance between the anchors on the bottom. The towing line attaches to a cleat on the towing beam, or two individual towing lines are led from the outer cams of the towing beam to the deck of the working device. This allows the entire towing gear to be kept clearly organized.

[0006] The simple design and inexpensive production of this search, recovery and holding anchor allows for simple repairs, especially in commercial use, and enables inexpensive replacement in the event of irreparable damage. In addition, due to the small storage volume of several such anchors, sufficient reserve anchors can be carried, especially in mobile operations. This can significantly increase the cost-effectiveness of such operations, especially when towing gears are equipped with several such anchors, because fewer spare parts need to be kept on hand.

[0007] A particular application is in the military sector for espionage and sabotage defense. Sensitive installations in the open sea, such as drilling rigs, production platforms, wind farms, pipelines, tidal power plants, and submarine cables, are preferred espionage and potential sabotage targets of foreign military powers. At the depths where the connecting infrastructure of such installations is located, the possibility of a radio connection for espionage activities or for remote action in acts of sabotage not carried out by time-delay fuses is very low. Therefore, a cable connection must be established from the espionage or sabotage module. Fiber optic is the most discreet option because it cannot be detected electromagnetically. This cable must be connected to an inconspicuous location close to the water surface, where a handover point is located for discreet data transmission or for triggering remote action.Someone discreetly laying such a cable while navigating this sea area certainly doesn't have the time or the discreet technical means to flush such a cable in. Nevertheless, these cables are very difficult to detect using sonar or optical imaging, especially in murky water, because their diameter can be below the resolution limit of these methods. Since the bottom around such security-sensitive installations is very well surveyed and objects above the resolution limit are displayed, the unobstructed areas can be easily searched using a towing gear. The fluke opening can be very specifically adjusted to the cable diameter being sought. Equipping a cable with indicator sensors when capturing a cable is also conceivable and, given the assets to be protected, financially justifiable.Regular searches around the objects to be protected will result in a very high probability of detecting and destroying subversive technology.

[0008] This anchor is a very universal tool for civil and military applications due to its low cost of manufacture, ease of handling, very flexible adaptation to different tasks and small storage volume of several units.

[0009] Reference symbol Sheet metal body Pull tab Upwardly bent fluke Downwardly bent fluke Pulling eye in working direction Pulling eye in return direction Base

Claims

Patent claims 1. Search, rescue and holding anchor for ropes and wire ropes, provided with a towing eye in the working direction (5) and a towing eye in the retrieval direction (6), as well as equipped with a pulling lug (2) and two flukes (3; 4) bent up and down in opposite opening directions to the pulling lug (2), wherein the opening gaps between the pulling lug (2) and the flukes (3; 4) are wedge-shaped on the one hand and sharp-edged and / or slip-resistant on the other, so that a holding force is exerted on ropes, wire rope, cables or debris that have become wedged between the pulling lug (2) and one of the flukes (3; 4) when the anchor is moved in the working direction.

2. Search, recovery and holding anchor according to claim 1, characterized in that the entire device is made from a single piece of sheet metal.

3. Search, recovery and holding anchor according to claim 1 and 2, characterized in that several of these devices can be stacked one on top of the other in a form-fitting manner and thus require little storage space during storage and transport of several such devices.

4. Search, recovery and holding anchor according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the effective opening between flukes (3;4) and pull tab (2) can be adapted by bending for specifically selectively sought small diameters.

5. Search, recovery and holding anchor according to claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the anchor or only the flukes (3;4) has / have an anti-slip coating or is / are anti-slip coated.

6. Towing gear assembled from a plurality of search, recovery and holding anchors according to any one of the preceding claims, as well as tow lines, tow beams, trip lines and floating beams.

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