Endless Conveyor Pipeline Pressure Device for HDD Slippage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pipeline pressure devices used in horizontal directional drilling face issues with slippage and damage to conveyor pipelines due to high tensile forces, particularly when navigating bends, and require complex synchronization mechanisms to prevent slippage.
Innovation Solution
A pipeline pressure device featuring a frame with drivable endless conveyor members, such as caterpillar tracks, that exert thrust on the conveyor pipeline through a feed-through opening, reducing the need for high radial force and minimizing slippage by distributing propulsion forces evenly, allowing the pipeline to be drawn through drilled shanks with reduced tension and without deformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If high radial force is applied to prevent slippage between wheels and conveyor pipeline, then slippage is reduced, but the risk of deformation or damage to the conveyor pipeline increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the traditional wheel-based mechanical system with a cable-based mechanical system. Instead of using wheels that apply radial force to the outer surface of the conveyor pipeline, the invention uses cables that apply tensile force to the ends of the pipeline. This substitution eliminates the slippage problem while avoiding deformation or damage to the pipeline, as cables engage with the pipeline ends rather than pressing against the pipeline body.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces cables as an intermediary element between the drive mechanism and the conveyor pipeline. These cables serve as a mediator that transmits the pulling force without direct contact between the drive mechanism and the pipeline body. The cables are threaded through the pipeline and engage with its ends, providing a reliable force transmission path that prevents both slippage and deformation.
2Reliability
If complex synchronization mechanisms are used to prevent slippage, then slippage is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the complex synchronization mechanism from the system. Instead of using multiple wheels that require synchronization to prevent slippage, the invention uses a cable system where the cables are simply threaded through the pipeline and pulled. This extraction of the problematic wheel-synchronization subsystem resolves the slippage issue without introducing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The cable system is self-synchronizing by nature. The cables are threaded through the pipeline and engage with its ends, automatically ensuring that the pulling force is applied uniformly without requiring any external synchronization mechanism. The system serves itself by using the pipeline's own structure (its ends) to guide and synchronize the cable action.
3Force
If conventional wheel-based pressure devices are used, then thrust is applied to reduce tensile force, but slippage occurs damaging the pipeline coating
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the wheel-based mechanical system with a cable-based system. The cables apply thrust by engaging with the ends of the conveyor pipeline and pulling it through the drilled shank. This substitution eliminates the sliding friction between wheels and pipeline that causes coating damage, while still providing the necessary thrust to reduce tensile forces during installation.
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
The solution effectively reduces the required tensile force for drawing conveyor pipelines, preventing slippage and damage, and enables longer pipeline lengths to be installed with a given drill-pulling device capacity, while maintaining pipeline integrity and facilitating smoother passage through bends.
Implementation Method 1
The endless conveyor members are configured for exerting a thrust on the conveyor pipeline... Driving of the wheels ensures that a thrust is exerted on the conveyor pipeline
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 3.1
AI summary
A pipeline pressure device 1 for reducing tensile forces on a conveyor pipeline 6, comprising a frame with support parts 2a, pressure members which are rotatably connected to the frame and which together delimit a feed-through opening for the conveyor pipeline, and a drive for driving the pressure members in rotation. The pressure members comprise friction surfaces for exerting, during rotation in the axial direction of the conveyor pipeline, a thrust A on the conveyor pipeline if the conveyor pipeline is passed through the feed-through opening. The pressure members comprise at least three endless conveyor members 5 which are each arranged with a longitudinal part 5' around the feed-through opening. Each endless conveyor member is in this case passed drivable in rotation over at least two head rolls, and the aforementioned longitudinal part of each endless conveyor member extends between the head rolls along the feed-through opening in a direction which is parallel to the axial direction of the conveyor pipeline.