Angled Pipe Inspection Tool with Sealing Jacks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pipe inspection tools, such as PIGs, struggle to navigate pipes with angled branches and differing diameters, requiring costly and disruptive pipe cutting for access, which poses risks and inefficiencies.
Innovation Solution
A pipe inspection tool with a head piece and feeder tube system that includes a tubular body with a distal opening at an angle to engage the feeder tube, a camera or sensing device for alignment, and jacks to sealably couple with the header pipe, allowing a PIG to be introduced through the feeder tube.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a PIG is used to inspect pipes, then inspection capability is provided, but the PIG cannot negotiate angled branches or pipes of significantly differing diameters
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary device (the inspection tool with angled coupler) that mediates between the main pipeline and the feeder tube. This coupler engages with the feeder tube at an angle and provides a sealed interface, allowing inspection tools to access angled branches without requiring the main PIG to negotiate the angle directly. The intermediary coupler adapts the geometry mismatch between straight pipeline inspection and angled branch access.
2Ease of operation
If pipe cutting is performed to enable inspection, then access for inspection is achieved, but the process is expensive, takes facilities offline, and poses patch failure risks
Solution Approach 1:
The inspection tool is designed with pre-configured angled couplers and sealing mechanisms that are prepared in advance to match specific feeder tube geometries. The tool includes pre-attached cameras, sensors, and coupling mechanisms that are ready for immediate deployment. This preliminary preparation eliminates the need for on-site pipe cutting and patching operations, allowing inspectors to simply introduce the pre-configured tool into the pipeline and begin inspection immediately.
3Ease of operation
If pipe cutting and patching is performed to enable inspection, then access is achieved, but costly materials and labor are required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the inspection function from the main pipeline structure by using a separate, removable inspection tool that can be introduced through existing pipeline openings. Instead of modifying the pipeline structure through cutting and patching, the inspection capabilities (cameras, sensors, couplers) are extracted into a standalone tool that interfaces with the pipeline non-invasively. This eliminates the need for expensive pipe cutting, welding, and patching operations while providing equivalent inspection access.
Data Source
AI summary
A pipe inspection system and method for accessing and inspecting a feeder tube extending from a larger header pipe at an angle are disclosed. A pipe inspection tool including a head piece and a delivery tube are positioned within the header pipe and aligned with the feeder tube using cameras or other alignment means. The head piece includes a jack that presses the head piece against the interior surface of the header pipe at the feeder tube to create a sufficient seal to deliver a PIG or another pipe inspection device to the feeder tube.