Interlocking teeth for strengthening pinned connection between knuckle-jointed lance segments
AssigneeThomas Engineering Solutions & Consulting, LLC
InventorWilliam C. Thomas
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A Knuckle Jointed Lance (KJL), comprising a segmented lance including a plurality of elongate and hollow KJL segments in a concatenated string thereof. The first segment end of one KJL segment is rotatably connected to the second segment end of a neighboring KJL segment via a pinned connection. Neighboring pairs of KJL segments together provide an interlocking toothed connection such that each interlocking toothed connection restrains relative torsional displacement between the neighboring pair of KJL segments. In other embodiments, pinned connections also provide ears, each with cooperating ear ledges and ear ledge recesses to strengthen the pinned connection.
Claims15
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;
- 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 of the KJL segments about the pinned connection in the first rotational direction;
- and
- wherein, for at least one neighboring pair of KJL segments, the first segment end on the one KJL segment and the second segment end on the other KJL segment together provide an interlocking toothed connection such that the interlocking toothed connection restrains relative torsional displacement between the at least one neighboring pair of KJL segments about the longitudinal axes of the KJL segments.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.