Loading patent…
AssigneeCommissariat a l'Energie Atomique
InventorsYves-Paul Corfa, Paul Marchal, Victor Roussel, Jean Vertut
Estimating the term…
A modular draging unit for collecting solid bodies such as polymetallic nodules on an underwater bed such as a sea floor comprises a plurality of collecting structures and a storage structure which are intended to be applied against the sea floor, means for displacing these structures along the sea floor, for collecting nodules and for transferring the nodules into the storage structure. The collecting structures are located side by side at a front edge of the unit and each collecting structure is coupled to the storage structure by means of at least one link-arm in such a manner as to permit of relative motion with at least two degrees of freedom and to maintain each collecting means in a predetermined position with respect to the sea floor during a nodule-collecting operation.
A modular dragging unit for collecting solid bodies on an underwater bed, said dragging unit comprising a plurality of collecting structures for individually collecting said solid bodies, said structures being applied against said underwater bed and located side by side at a front edge of said dragging unit, a storage structure for storing said bodies as they are collected, said structure being applied against said underwater bed, means for displacing said collecting and storage structures along said bed in a given direction, said means being connected to the storage structure, a plurality of means for collecting said bodies along said given direction, each said means being rigidly fixed to one of said collecting structures, and a plurality of means for transferring said bodies as they are collected from each collecting means into said storage structure along said given direction, each said transferring means being rigidly fixed to one of said collecting structures, wherein coupling means are provided between each collecting structure and the storage structure, said coupling means permitting an independent relative movement of each collecting structure with respect to the storage structure and maintaining each collecting structure in a predetermined distance and orientation with respect to said underwater bed at the time of collection of said bodies whatever the position of said storage structure relative to said bed and whatever the variations in profile of the underwater bed, each coupling means between one of said collecting structures and the storage structure comprising at least one link-arm connected to each structure to provide at least two degrees of freedom between said structures.
A modular dragging unit for collecting solid bodies on an underwater bed, said dragging unit comprising a plurality of collecting structures for individually collecting said solid bodies, said structures being applied against said underwater bed and located side by side at a front edge of said dragging unit, a storage structure for storing said bodies as they are collected, said structure being applied against said underwater bed, means for displacing said collecting and storage structures along said bed in a given direction, said means being rigidly fixed to the storage structure, a plurality of means for collecting said bodies along said given direction, each said means being rigidly fixed to one of said collecting structures, and a plurality of means for transferring said bodies as they are collected from each collecting means into said storage structure along said given direction, each said transferring means being rigidly fixed to one of said collecting structures, wherein said unit further comprises coupling means provided between each collecting structure and the storage structure, said coupling means permitting an independent relative movement of each collecting structure with respect to the storage structure and maintaining each collecting structure in a predetermined distance and orientation with respect to said underwater bed at the time of collection of said bodies whatever the position of said structure relative to said bed and whatever the variations in profile of the underwater bed, each coupling means between one of said collecting structures and the storage structure comprising at least one link-arm connected to each structure to provide at least two degrees of freedom, means for measuring variations in slope of said bed upstream of each collecting structure, means for positioning each collecting means at a predetermined level with respect to said bed, and means actuated by said measuring means controlling said means for positioning each collecting means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.