Portable support method and apparatus
OwnerDennis Wolffordinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A portable manway cover handling apparatus and method comprises a lightweight support unit having a mounting tab secured to a manway stub flange within stub flange bolt holes by stud bolts projecting from expandable mandrel sleeves. A structural support beam is cantilevered from the mounting tab for attachment of a force line pulling machine. A force line from the pulling machine is attached to the manway cover and all manway flange bolts removed except a single loose hinge bolt proximate of the flange bottom. The pulling machine is operated to control the rotation of the manway cover about the hinge bolt to a stable suspension position whereat the manway portal is open.
Claims13
A portable load support unit adapted for attachment to an outside flange face respective to a pipe joint flange having a planar outside face, a planar inside seal face and a first plurality of fastener apertures transversely through said flange between said inside and outside faces and uniformly spaced around a perimeter of said flange, said load support unit comprising:
- A mounting tab penetrated by a second plurality of apertures less than said first plurality, said second plurality of apertures positioned in said mounting tab to align with a corresponding plurality of apertures among said first plurality;
- A first beam member secured to said mounting tab to project outside of said flange perimeter from a plane of said outside flange face to a distal end past a plane of said seal face;
- and,
- A load supporting appliance secured to said first beam member proximate of said first beam member distal end.
A method of displacing a flanged pipe manway cover secured by a plurality of fasteners to a manway portal flange, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) removing one or more flange fasteners within an arc of fasteners that secure said cover to a manway portal flange;
- (b) inserting a collet expanded fastener in at least one aperture in said portal flange vacated by said flange fastener removal, said collet fastener having threaded shanks projecting from an outside plane of said portal flange and away from said manway cover and with no structural portion of said fastener projecting past a sealing plane of said portal flange toward said manway cover;
- (c) penetrating receptacle apertures in a load support appliance by said threaded shanks to secure said appliance to said portal flange, said support appliance having a beam member projecting above said manway cover;
- (d) suspending an adjustable length force line device from said beam member;
- (e) attaching an adjustable length force line to said manway cover;
- and,
- (f) removing remaining flange fasteners to release said manway cover from said portal flange;
- and
- (g) controlling the displacement of said manway cover by controlling said adjustable length force line device.
A method of suspending a load pulling device from a pipe joint flange supported by a section of pipe, said flange having a plurality of fastener apertures distributed about a perimeter of said flange and extended through a thickness of said flange between an outside face plane and an inside face plane, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a load support appliance having a mounting tab and a load supporting extension, said mounting tab having at least one receptacle aperture;
- (b) inserting a collet expanded fastener into a flange aperture to project a threaded stud shank from said outside face plane and with no structural projections past said inside face plane;
- (c) penetrating said receptacle aperture by said stud shank to secure said mounting tab to said flange;
- and,
- (d) attaching a load pulling device to said load supporting extension.
A load bearing assembly comprising a pipe flange having a plurality of fastener apertures, a collet fastener and a load bearing structure having an attachment aperture;
- said collet fastener including a collet sleeve and a collet mandrel, said collet sleeve having an outside cylinder surface diameter proportioned to a slip-fit penetration of a flange fastener aperture, said sleeve having an axial length less than an axial length of a flange fastener aperture, an axial bore along said collet sleeve length that is tapered from a first inside diameter at a first end to a second inside diameter at a second end, said first inside diameter being greater than said second inside diameter, a slot along the length of said collet sleeve between said surface and said axial bore;
- said collet mandrel having a tapered, substantially smooth first end and threaded shank second end, said mandrel first end having an axial length no greater than the axial length of said collet sleeve, a distal end of said mandrel first end having an outside diameter substantially the same as said collet first inside diameter and a shank end of said mandrel first end having an outside diameter substantially the same as said collet second end diameter;
- said load bearing structure having an attachment aperture greater than a thread crest diameter of said shank and less than the outside cylinder diameter of said sleeve whereby advancement of a nut along said threaded shank and against said load bearing structure axially displaces said mandrel relative to said sleeve and radially expands said sleeve outside surface against an inside wall of said flange aperture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.