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AssigneeS.p.A. Officine Maccaferri gia Raffaele Maccaferri & Figli
InventorsAndrea Papetti, Cesare Pedrini
Estimating the term…
A flexible mattress-like element usable as ballast or a load for immobilizing and protecting underwater pipelines, includes an outer flexible envelope, preferably made from a non-woven fabric, covering at least one gabion which is made from double-twist, hexagonal-mesh wire netting in the form of a somewhat-flattened parallelepiped and is filled with a mixture of stones or pebbles with a sand-, filler-, and bitumen-based mastic. The composition of the mastic is such that it is fluid at 150.degree. C. to 180.degree. C., semi-fluid at 100.degree. to 140.degree. C., plastic at 10.degree. to 50.degree. C., semi-plastic at temperatures of from 0.degree. C. to -10.degree. C., and tends to become rigid at temperatures below -10.degree. C. Each gabion is made from panels of netting in which the portions of wires which are twisted together are preferably arranged transverse the length of the gabion, that is, parallel to the axis of the pipeline to be immobilized and protected.
A flexible mattress-like element usable as ballast for immobilising and protecting underwater pipelines comprising at least one gabion made from top, bottom, side and end panels of double-twist hexagonal-mesh wire netting and having an elongated flattened parallelepipied form with a longitudinal axis and a mixture disposed within said gabion constituted by an aggregate of stones or pebbles and a sand, filler, and bitumen based mastic wherein the wires forming at least said top panel of hexagonal-mesh netting of said gabion are twisted together along portions which extend traverse to said longitudinal axis of said gabion whereby the flexibility of the element is enhanced when draped over an underwater pipeline.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.