Underground Cable Removal Device with Percussive Displacement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for removing underground electrical cables are inefficient and environmentally risky, often requiring extensive digging and can lead to cable snapping, which poses a risk of oil leakage from older, redundant cables.
Innovation Solution
A device with a displacement element and a self-propelling percussive driving element that loosens cables by displacing material around them, allowing for removal without excavating the entire cable length, and a method using an annular clamp for securing and pulling the cable, minimizing the risk of snapping and environmental damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional digging methods are used to remove cables, then complete cable removal is achieved, but extensive excavation is required and land usage is disrupted
Solution Approach 1:
The cable removal process is segmented into two distinct phases: first, a directional drill creates a horizontal borehole through the ground along the cable path without extensive excavation; second, the cable is extracted through this borehole. This segmentation allows complete cable removal while minimizing surface disruption and land usage time.
Solution Approach 2:
A directional drill borehole acts as an intermediary pathway between the surface and the buried cable. Instead of digging open trenches to access the cable, the borehole provides a closed-access corridor that enables cable extraction while keeping the land surface intact and usable.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If soldering caps are applied to cable ends to prevent oil leakage, then environmental risk is reduced, but the process is costly and requires expert jointers
Solution Approach 1:
The traditional soldering process (which requires thermal processing and expert skill) is replaced with a mechanical cap application system. The cap is mechanically secured to the cable end through threading or clamping mechanisms, eliminating the need for soldering equipment, expert jointers, and thermal processing while achieving the same oil containment function.
3Productivity
If cables are pulled through material without loosening, then removal speed is increased, but cable snapping risk increases especially for older cables
Solution Approach 1:
Before attempting to pull the cable through the ground, a directional drill borehole is preliminarily created along the cable path. This preliminary action reduces the friction and resistance the cable encounters during extraction, allowing faster removal without exceeding the cable's breaking strength, even for older, more brittle cables.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the efficient and cost-effective removal of underground cables with reduced environmental impact by creating a void around the cable for easy extraction and using mechanical capping to prevent oil leakage, thus saving time and expense while minimizing disruption.
Implementation Method 1
a percussive driving element coupled to the displacement element for performing a percussive action to advance the displacement element along a conveyance member
Data Source
AI summary
A device for use in removing a conveyance member from a material includes a displacement element (12, 1012) and a self-propelling driving element. The displacement element (12, 1012) is for being placed at least partly around a conveyance member (16) and for displacing material as the displacement element (12, 1012) is advanced along a conveyance member (16). The driving element is coupled to and movable with the displacement element (12, 1012) to advance the displacement element along a conveyance member (16).