Multilayer Pipe-Lining Fabric for Large Pull-In-Place Liners
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current pipe lining materials for pull-in-place installations lack versatility and scalability, requiring specific properties for different applications and environments, and existing fabrication methods struggle to produce tubular liners of larger diameters and longer lengths due to handling and weight issues.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a multilayered fabric construction process using a carrier tube and adhesive layers, allowing for the creation of tubular liners with varied thicknesses, diameters, and lengths, and a specific yarn structure with inlay yarns and warp-knitted yarns that provide strength, flexibility, and expandability, suitable for pull-in-place installations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If existing fabrication methods are used to produce tubular liners of larger diameters and longer lengths, then the ability to line larger pipes is improved, but handling and weight issues worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The liner is divided into multiple fabric layers that are separately manufactured and then assembled. Each layer can be produced in manageable sizes and weights, then joined together to form the complete large-diameter, long-length tubular liner. This segmentation allows the final product to achieve large dimensions without requiring the entire structure to be handled as a single heavy piece during manufacturing.
2Adaptability or versatility
If fabric properties are adapted for inversion installations (high flexibility and conformability), then the ability to maintain integrity around bends is improved, but strength and temperature stability for pull-in-place installations worsen
Solution Approach 1:
Different fabric layers are assigned different properties based on their specific functional requirements. Some layers are designed with high flexibility and conformability for navigating bends and junctions, while other layers are optimized for strength and temperature stability. This local differentiation allows the composite liner structure to simultaneously exhibit both flexibility where needed and strength where required, resolving the contradiction between these opposing properties.
3Ease of manufacture
If a single fabric type is used for all pipe repair applications, then manufacturing simplicity is improved, but the ability to meet different application requirements worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The liner system is designed as a universal multi-layer fabric structure where each layer can be manufactured using standard processes, but the combination of layers provides adaptability to different applications. By using a modular layered approach, the same basic manufacturing methodology can produce liners tailored for specific applications by simply adjusting the material composition and properties of individual layers, thus achieving both manufacturing simplicity and application versatility.
Data Source
AI summary
A material for use in lining pipes includes inlay yarns that are interlinked by warp-knitted yarns. One set of inlay yarns extends in a machine direction, contributing to the fabric's strength in this direction. Two further sets of inlay yarns follow paths that step alternately between displacements to the left and right. This construction results in a series of short lengths of yarn aligned to provide the fabric with cross-directional strength. The inlay layers are loosely held, allowing them to slide relative to each other and the straight inlay yarns may move apart to a small degree. The result is a strong, flexible fabric that retains sufficient expansion for use in a pull-in-place liner.A method of preparing a multilayered pipe-lining fabric involves repeated steps of layering flat sheets above and below a flattened carrier tube, bonding the sheets, then flattening the structure along fold lines circumferentially rotated from the first. Longer length and larger diameter tubular structures may be fabricated by this method, particularly heavier fabrics, such as those incorporating glass fibres.