Enhanced knuckle-jointed lance useful for internal cleaning and inspection of tubulars

A Knuckle Jointed Lance (KJL), comprising:

• a segmented lance, the lance including a plurality of elongate and hollow KJL segments in a concatenated string thereof, the string divided into a concatenated plurality of discrete segment groups each segment group including a plurality of KJL segments, the string having first and second string ends wherein a first bookend segment group is at the first string end and a second bookend segment group is at the second string end, wherein further:
• (A) each segment group includes a plurality of uniform-length KJL segments and at least one transitional-length KJL segment;
• (B) for each segment group, each of the at least one transitional-length KJL segments therein has a different length than the uniform-length KJL segments therein;
• (C) the uniform-length KJL segments in the first bookend segment group have a smaller uniform length than the uniform-length KJL segments in the second bookend segment group;
• wherein each KJL segment has a longitudinal axis, and has first and second segment ends;
• wherein, for each neighboring pair of KJL segments in the concatenated string:
• (1) the first segment end of one KJL segment in the pair is rotatably connected to the second segment end of the other KJL segment in the pair via a pinned connection such that when the pair of KJL segments is in longitudinal axis alignment, the KJL segments are restrained from relative rotation about the pinned connection except in a first rotational direction only;
• and
• (2) the first segment end of the one KJL segment in the pair provides a first sloped portion, the first sloped portion facing a second sloped portion provided on the second segment end of the other KJL segment in the pair, such that contact between the first and second sloped portions limits relative rotation about the pinned connection in the first rotational direction.