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US 2003/0184077 A1Published application
Road and rail tankers
OwnerAllan William Stobartinventor
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OwnerAllan William Stobartinventor
Estimating the term…
Multi-compartment tankers, especially road tankers, suffer from cracking of the compartment divisions due to the repeated stressing of the tank in use. The present invention provides a solution by providing the desired capacity in a plurality of tanks which are individually mounted one behind the other to a vehicle chassis using a flexible mounting system which allows the individual tanks to move with respect to one another in response to flexing of the vehicle chassis. The mounting allows at least upward and downward movement relative to a rest position. The use of multiple tanks facilitates the use of a sight gauge for determining the quantity of liquid in each tank. By constructing the tanks as horizontally symmetrical tanks with respect to a volumetric centre line, two sight gauges disposed at equal distances on a diameter passing through the volumetric centre line provides a means of assessing the quantity of liquid in the tank when the tank is inclined, even where the opposite ends of the tank are curved. Alternatively, a single sight gauge may be used in conjunction with a level meaning device set on a horizontal line intersecting the volumetric centre line and the sight gauge. The invention also proposes tankers having a unique configuration of tanks which are each horizontally symmetrical and in which the opposite ends of each tank are correspondingly curved and wherein adjacent tanks have complimentary curved ends to allow close nesting of the tanks. Also described is a vapour recovery system which is particularly suitable for use with flexibly mounted tanks which are of horizontally symmetric construction and in which two volumetrically matched member are mounted within the tank and are disposed equidistant from the volumetric centre line, and at least one of which serves as a vent pipe. Also proposed is a semi trailer having a plurality of flexibly mounted tanks and in which the tanks have progressively increasing depths from the front to the rear of the trailer and yet which maintain horizontal symmetry.
1 A tanker comprising a wheeled chassis and a plurality of tanks, the tanks being disposed in series one behind the other, and wherein the plurality of tanks are individually mounted on the wheeled chassis each using a plurality of flexible mountings and wherein the flexible mountings allow movement of each tank in at least an upward and downward direction from a rest position.
2 A tanker according to claim 1 in which the flexible mountings allow movement of each tank in all directions relative to the rest position.
3 A tanker according to claim 1 in which each tank is horizontally symmetrical and has a volumetric centre line.
4 A tanker comprising a wheeled chassis and a plurality of tanks, the tanks being disposed in a line one behind the other and individually mounted on the chassis, each tank having opposite end walls and the opposite end walls of each tank being curved, and wherein adjacent end walls of any two adjacent tanks are complimentarily curved.
5 A tanker according to claim 4 in which the opposite end walls of each tank are correspondingly curved.
6 A tanker according to claim 4 in which the opposite ends of each tank are complimentarily curved.
7 A tanker according to claim 4 in which each tank is horizontally symmetrical and has a volumetric centre line.
8 A tanker according to claim 5 in which the curved ends of the tank are one of concavely curved and convexly curved.
9 A tanker as claimed in claim 6 in which one end of each tank is concavely curved and its opposite end is convexly curved.
10 A tank which is horizontally symmetric about a volumetric centre line, and which comprises a pair of sight gauges disposed parallel to said volumetric centre line and set at equal distances on a diameter centred on said volumetric centre line, and a calibration for each sight gauge to determine the quantity of liquid in the tank.
11 A tank according to claim 10 in which the sight gauges branch from the tank and are vented back into the tank, and in which the liquid in the sight gauge is the liquid in the tank.
12 A method of measuring the quantity of liquid in a tank which is horizontally symmetric about a volumetric centre line, and in which the tank further comprises a pair of calibrated sight gauges disposed parallel to said volumetric centre line and set at equal distances on a diameter centred on said volumetric centre line, in which method the readings from the pair of sight gauges are averaged to determine the quantity of liquid in the tank.
13 A vapour recovery system for a tank which is horizontally symmetric about a volumetric centre line, the tank further comprising a pair of members disposed within the tank substantially parallel to said volumetric centre line and set at equal distances on a diameter centred on said volumetric centre line and in which one member serves as a vent pipe and emerges from the tank and communicates with a manifold which has provisions for connecting to a vapour recovery tank.
14 A vapour recovery system according to claim 13 in which the other member is volumetrically matched to the vent pipe.
15 A vapour recovery system according to claim 13 in which the pair of members extend through the tank.
16 A vapour recovery system according to claim 11 when applied to a tanker comprising a plurality of tanks which are flexibly mounted with respect to a chassis, in which the manifold comprises a plurality of sections corresponding in number to the number of tanks and each section is connected by a flexible connection.
17 A vapour recovery system according to claim 11, when applied to a tanker comprising a plurality of tanks which are flexibly mounted to the chassis and in which each vent pipe connects to a common vent manifold by way of a flexible connection.
18 A tank for liquid which comprises a sight gauge which branches from the tank and which is vented back into the tank and further comprising a level measuring device and a calibration for said sight gauge to determine the quantity of liquid in the tank when level.
19 A tank according to claim 16 in which the tank is horizontally symmetric about a volumetric centre line, and the level measuring device is set on a horizontal diameter aligned with said volumetric centre line and said sight gauge.
20 A tank according to claim 16 in which the measuring device is configured to be able to indicate when the tank is level in a horizontal plane with out limitation of direction.
21 A method of measuring the quantity of liquid in a tank, the tank having a calibrated sight gauge and a level measuring device, the method comprising checking the level measuring device to check that the tank is level and reading off the quantity of liquid in the tank from the calibrated gauge.
22 A method of measuring the quantity of liquid in a tank according to claim 21 when the tank is horizontally symmetric about a volumetric centre line, the tank further comprising a calibrated sight gauge disposed parallel to said volumetric centre line and a level measuring device set on a diameter aligned with said volumetric centre line and said sight gauge, the method comprising checking that the tank is level along said line and reading off the quantity of liquid in the tank from the calibrated gauge.
23 A tanker according to claim 1 in which each flexible mounting comprises a resilient element having a central core accommodating a sleeve, and a mounting flange accommodating the resilient element, and in which the mounting flange is secured with respect to one of the chassis and tank, and a securing means co-operating with the sleeve to secure same with respect to the other of the chassis and tank to provide a resilient connection between same.
24 A tanker according to claim 23 in which a retaining washer is secured with respect to the sleeve by said securing means and is dimensioned to act as an end stop and to retain the mounting in place in the event of failure of the resilient element.
25 A tanker according to claim 5 in which each flexible mounting comprises a resilient element having a central core accommodating a sleeve, and a mounting flange accommodating the resilient element, and in which the flange is secured with respect to one of the chassis and tank, and a securing means co-operating with the sleeve to secure same with respect to the other of the chassis and tank to provide resilient connection between same.
26 A tank according to claim 10 in which the pair of sight gauges are centrally disposed at an end of the tank and fed from a common or a respective outlet of the tank, which outlet is disposed on the longitudinal centre line of the tank.
27 A method according to claim 12 in which the pair of sight gauges are centrally disposed at an end of the tank and fed from a common or a respective outlet of the tank, which outlet is disposed on the longitudinal centre line of the tank.
28 A tank according to claim 19 in which the sight gauge is centrally disposed at an end of the tank and fed from an outlet of the tank, which outlet is disposed on the longitudinal centre line of the tank.
29 A method according to claim 22 in which the sight gauge is centrally disposed at an end of the tank and fed from an outlet of the tank, which outlet is disposed on the longitudinal centre line of the tank.
30 A tanker according to claim 1 in which the wheeled chassis is an articulated semi-trailer for the road.
31 A tanker according to claim 30 in which, in use, the chassis is inclined and each of the plurality of tanks has an increasing depth in a direction from the front to the rear of the tanker.
32 A tanker according to claim 27 in which the tops of the plurality of tanks are in alignment and substantially horizontal in use.
33 A tanker according to claim 27 in which each of the plurality of tanks has a bottom which is substantially horizontal, and wherein the bottoms of at least two adjacent tanks are stepped relative to one another.
34 A tanker according to claim 27 in which the chassis has mounted thereon forward and rearward flanges for each of the plurality of tanks, and the flanges for any one of the plurality of tanks lie in a substantially horizontal plane.
35 A tanker according to claim 34 in which the flanges for adjacent tanks lie in different horizonal planes.
36 A tanker according to claim 1 in which the wheeled chassis is a four, six or eight wheeled rigid self powered road vehicle.
37 A tanker according to claim 1 in which the chassis is that of draw bar trailer.
38 A tanker according to claim 1 in which each tank has an outlet valve and the outlet valve is resiliently mounted with respect to the wheeled chassis and the tank.
39 A tanker according to claim 1 when constructed as a rail vehicle.
40 A tanker according to claim 7 in which the wheeled chassis is an articulated semi-trailer for the road.
41 A tanker according to claim 7 in which the wheeled chassis is a four, six or eight wheeled rigid self powered road vehicle.
42 A tanker according to claim 7 in which the chassis is that of draw bar trailer.
43 A tanker according to claim 7 in which each tank has an outlet valve and the outlet valve is resiliently mounted with respect to the wheeled chassis and the tank.