Pipe crawler with extendable legs

Details Pipe crawler with extendable legs Pipe crawler with extendable legs

1991-04-02

1992-06-16

Oberleitner, Robert J.

Railways

Tubular way

Internal service device

1041381, 105365, B61B 1310

Patent

active

051216949

ABSTRACT:
A pipe crawler for moving through a pipe in inchworm fashion having front and rear leg assemblies separated by air cylinders to increase and decrease the spacing between assemblies. Each leg of the four legs of an assembly is moved between a wall-engaging, extended position and a retracted position by a separate air cylinder. The air cylinders of the leg assemblies are preferably arranged in pairs of oppositely directed cylinders with no pair lying in the same axial plane as another pair. Therefore, the cylinders can be as long a leg assembly is wide and the crawler can crawl through sections of pipes where the diameter is twice that of other sections. The crawler carries a valving system, a manifold to distribute air supplied by a single umbilical air hose to the various air cylinders in a sequence controlled electrically by a controller. The crawler also utilizes a rolling mechanism, casters in this case, to reduce friction between the crawler and pipe wall thereby further extending the range of the pipe crawler.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4112850 (1978-09-01), Sigel-Gfeller
patent: 4177734 (1979-12-01), Rhoden
patent: 4244296 (1981-01-01), Vertut
patent: 4432271 (1984-02-01), Wentzell et al.
patent: 4457236 (1984-07-01), Akhmadiev et al.
patent: 4458601 (1984-07-01), Braithwaite et al.
patent: 4576097 (1986-03-01), Foster
patent: 4581938 (1986-04-01), Wentzell
patent: 4654702 (1987-03-01), Tolino et al.
patent: 4690006 (1987-09-01), Urata
patent: 4770105 (1988-09-01), Takagi et al.
patent: 4919223 (1990-04-01), Egger et al.
patent: 5018451 (1991-05-01), Hapstack

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