Dual endless belt flexible lance hose drive apparatus and system
AssigneeStoneage, Inc.
InventorsJeffery R. Barnes, Cooper Hanley, John L. Krauser, Daniel Szabo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for driving a flexible lance hose into and out of tubes in a heat exchanger tube sheet includes a housing and an upper endless belt drive assembly and a lower endless belt drive assembly spaced apart by a gap for receiving a flexible lance hose therein. One of the drive assemblies is fixed to the housing. The other drive assembly is movable within the housing toward and away from the one endless belt drive assembly. The apparatus further includes a drive motor fastened to the housing configured to engage at least one of the upper and lower endless belts and drive a flexible lance hose disposed in the gap.
Claims16
An apparatus for driving a flexible lance hose into and out of apertures of tubes in a heat exchanger tube sheet, the apparatus comprising:
- a housing adapted to be removably positioned on or adjacent to a tube sheet in alignment with tubes penetrating through the tube sheet;
- an upper endless belt drive assembly and a lower endless belt drive assembly within the housing spaced apart by a gap for receiving a flexible lance hose therein, wherein one of the upper endless belt drive assembly and the lower endless belt drive assembly is movable relative to the other of the upper endless belt drive assembly and the lower endless belt drive assembly so as to press against the flexible lance hose passing through the gap;
- a movable support carriage plate supported by at least one elongated slotted support affixed to a vertical wall in the housing, wherein one of the upper endless belt drive assembly and the lower endless belt drive assembly is connected to the at least one movable support carriage plate and moves up and down therewith;
- and
- a drive motor fastened to the housing configured to engage one of the upper and lower endless belts to drive the flexible lance hose disposed in the gap into and out of the apertures of the tubes of the heat exchanger tube sheet.
A system for cleaning tubes of a heat exchanger with a flexible lance hose, the system comprising:
- an apparatus for driving the flexible lance hose, wherein the apparatus for driving the flexible lance hose includes:
- a housing adapted to be removably positioned on or adjacent a tube sheet in alignment with tubes penetrating through the tube sheet;
- an upper endless belt drive assembly and a lower endless belt drive assembly within the housing spaced apart by a gap for receiving a flexible lance hose therein, wherein one of the upper endless belt drive assembly and the lower endless belt drive assembly is movable relative to the other of the upper endless belt drive assembly and the lower endless belt drive assembly so as to press against the flexible lance hose passing through the gap;
- a drive motor fastened to the housing configured to engage one of the upper and lower endless belts and drive the flexible lance hose disposed in the gap;
- a flexible lance positioner apparatus that includes:
- a bracket configured to be fixedly mounted relative to the tube sheet, wherein:
- the bracket includes a tapered gear pin extending normally from the bracket, and
- the tapered gear pin has a central axis;
- a rotary drive removably fastened to the tapered gear pin by a complementary tapered gear socket, the rotary drive rotatable about the central axis in a plane parallel to the tube sheet;
- an arm coupled to the rotary drive and rotatable in the plane parallel to the heat exchanger tube sheet;
- a linear drive assembly slidably engaged along the arm;
- and
- a guide tube collet block assembly coupled to the linear drive assembly, wherein:
- the guide tube collet block assembly removably supports the apparatus for driving the flexible lance hose apparatus, and
- the guide tube collet block assembly guides the flexible lance hose received from the apparatus for driving the flexible lance hose into a selected one of a plurality of apertures of the tube sheet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.