Hydraulic and earth engineering – Subterranean or submarine pipe or cable laying – retrieving,... – Repair – replacement – or improvement
Patent
1989-01-30
1991-01-08
Taylor, Dennis L.
Hydraulic and earth engineering
Subterranean or submarine pipe or cable laying, retrieving,...
Repair, replacement, or improvement
405154, 299 1, F16L 100
Patent
active
049842897
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling an underground excavator adapted to excavate a tunnel through which a water piping, a gas piping or the like extend in the underground while it is propelled therethrough in accordance with an excavation planned line and more particularly to practical realization of an apparatus preferably employable for semiautomatically controlling an underground excavator.
BACKGROUND ART
Generally, an iron-mole class underground excavator, a tunnel excavating machine or the like is operated such that a position where it is installed in the underground is measured using a laser beam in order to perform excavating operation as planned. However, it has been found that a conventional excavator of the above-mentioned type has a drawback that it is considerably difficult to measure the position using laser beam, because when a tunnel is excavated to bury a water piping, a gas piping or the like in the underground, a number of pipes having a very small diameter (e.g. a diameter of about 100 mm) are successively used during excavating operation and moreover the excavating operation is often performed while following a curved course. Namely, as far as an underground excavator of the type using pipes having a very small diameter to perform excavating operation is employed, it is difficult to reserve an optical passage through which a laser beam is propagated (because hydraulic hoses, electric cables and a variety of supporting means are accommodated in the form of a crowded assembly in the interior of a piping having a very small diameter, resulting in a sufficient space for allowing a laser beam to be propagated through the optical passage failing to be reserved in the piping. Even if such an optical passage can be reserved in the piping, it is practically impossible that the underground excavator performs excavating operation using a laser beam while following a curved course, because a laser beam is propagated only through a straight optical passage.
In recent years, in view of the foregoing drawback, a method of measuring a position where an underground excavator is installed in the underground, using a magnetic field in place of a laser beam has been already proposed and put in practical use for the purpose of excavating a tunnel using pipes having a very small diameter for the underground excavator.
FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a conventional method of measuring a position where an underground excavator is placed in the underground, utilizing a magnetic field. A hitherto employed method of excavating a tunnel using the underground excavator will be described below with reference to FIG. 5.
In the drawing, reference characters EP designate a ground surface, reference characters SH refer to a start pit, reference characters EH refer to a target pit, reference numeral 10 refers to an excavating head for the underground excavator, reference numeral 20 refers to a pilot head for the underground excavator, reference numeral 21 refers to a hydraulic motor accommodated in the pilot head 20 to adjust a turning angle of the excavating head 10, reference numeral 22 refers to a magnetic field generating element accommodated also in the pilot head 20 to generate a magnetic field extending in the form of a sprayed water stream, reference numeral 23 refers to an inclination measuring instrument accommodated also in the pilot head 20 to detect an inclination of the pilot head 20 relative to a horizontally extending plane, reference numerals 30 (30a, 30b, 30c) refer to a number of rod pipes adapted to be successively connected to the rear end of the pilot head 20 one after another, reference numeral 40 refers to a propelling jack for propelling the excavating head 10 and the pilot head 20 toward the target pit EH by allowing the rod pipes 30 to be successively displaced in the forward direction, reference numeral 41 refers to a propelled distance detector disposed at a suitable location on the propelling jack 40 to detect a propelled distance as measured fr
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patent: 3529682 (1970-09-01), Coyne
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patent: 3907045 (1975-09-01), Dahl et al.
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patent: 4733733 (1988-03-01), Bradley et al.
"Apparatus for Detecting Location of a small-caliber pipe propelling device", Publication Document at Symposium on Construction Machine and Working Method held in 1986.
"Developing Burrowing Technology", Part I, NTT Shisetsu 37-3.
"Developing Burrowing Technology", (Part III), NTT Shisetsu 37-5.
"Method of Constructing a Small-caliber Tunnel", Tsuken Geppoh 37-9, 1984.
Arakawa Shuji
Mimura Tatsuo
Kabushiki Kaisha Komatsu Seisakusho
Taylor Dennis L.
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