Continuous Pipe String Assembly With Synchronized Roller Movement
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The traditional method of assembling pipes for fluid and electrical conduits is inefficient, prone to accidents, and results in poor quality due to manual handling, imprecise displacement, and exposure to adverse conditions, leading to increased costs and risks.
Innovation Solution
A mechanized and automated process using synchronized driving rollers and electrical hoists to move and align pipe sections, reducing human intervention and enabling continuous, precise displacement and welding of pipe strings up to 1.2 km in length, with remote monitoring and control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If manual hoists and ratchet type devices are used for axial displacement of pipes, then the operation can be performed with simple equipment, but the movement becomes highly imprecise and causes risks of accidents, damages to coating, and ovalization of pipes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical hoists and ratchet devices with an automated mechanical displacement system featuring motorized winches, controlled displacement devices, and computerized control systems. This substitution eliminates manual operation imprecision while maintaining mechanical functionality, achieving both high precision and controlled complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The displacement system is designed to automatically control and monitor its own operation through computerized systems that track pipe position, displacement speed, and alignment. The system self-regulates to prevent coating damage and ovalization, reducing the need for external manual intervention while maintaining precision.
2Productivity
If pipes are handled and positioned manually during assembly, then equipment requirements are minimized, but assembly time increases and exposure to hazardous conditions increases
Solution Approach 1:
The assembly system is divided into specialized functional modules: welding cabins for joining pipes, controlled displacement devices for positioning, lifting equipment for vertical movement, and computerized control systems for coordination. This segmentation allows each module to perform its function efficiently while the integrated system achieves high productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces computerized control systems and automated guidance mechanisms as intermediaries between operators and the physical assembly process. These intermediaries coordinate equipment operation, monitor assembly progress, and ensure safety protocols are followed, enabling high-speed assembly while reducing direct human exposure to hazardous conditions.
3Reliability
If traditional spot pulling and improvised equipment are used to displace pipe strings, then equipment investment is reduced, but the process becomes imprecise and high risk with potential breakage
Solution Approach 1:
The displacement system incorporates pre-positioned guide rollers, support structures, and controlled braking mechanisms that cushion and protect pipes during movement. These elements are installed beforehand to prevent breakage, misalignment, and damage, ensuring reliable and safe displacement of pipe strings throughout the assembly process.
4Manufacturing precision
If mechanical excavators are used to displace pipe strings to stock stack, then the equipment is readily available, but the displacement lacks accuracy and causes unnecessary strain on pipes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces conventional mechanical excavators with specialized controlled displacement devices featuring motorized winches, precision positioning systems, and computerized control. This substitution maintains the mechanical nature of the operation while achieving high positioning accuracy and reducing unnecessary strain on pipes through controlled, gradual movement.
5Ease of operation
If manual handling and positioning of pipes is performed, then equipment costs are reduced, but the process requires highly skilled professionals and increases accident risks
Solution Approach 1:
The automated system incorporates self-monitoring and self-regulating capabilities through computerized control systems that track pipe position, displacement speed, and equipment status. The system automatically adjusts parameters to maintain safe operation and prevents hazardous conditions, reducing dependence on highly skilled manual operators while enhancing safety.
Data Source
AI summary
A process for the manufacture, assembly and continuous construction of tubular sections made of steel or polymer in individual pipelines with gradual movement that is designed to mechanize and automate a process substantially eliminating or mitigating existing inefficiencies and risks, considerably reducing the time vessels need to be moored at piers while paying extremely expensive daily rates, increasing the quality of welds, inspections and the entire process The process including inside the manufactured unit one or more weld cabins and a series of support devices with synchronized driven and free wheels that carry the pipe segments while simultaneously enabling movement of the entire stalk without external interference, following the joining of several pipe segments (welded together), of variable length, in which the embodiments provided in the present invention enable each stalk to be approximately 1.2 km long or longer.