US 4,558,971 A · Continuous pipeline fabrication method

Abstract

A filament or tape winding machine equipped with an automatically retractable mandrel for constructing in place the wall of a pipeline in a continuous and uninterrupted manner. The winding and the building up of the pipeline wall progress at a velocity equal to that of the extraction of the mandrel from inside of the completed pipeline. The filament or tape reinforcing material is bonded in place with a resin system applied and cured at fabrication stations, during the pipeline manufacturing process, located where the mandrel is supporting the pipeline wall. This mandrel supporting function ceases at a point where the pipeline wall has enough strength to support itself. The reinforcement material winding mechanism, the mandrel extracting mechanism and the resin curing equipment are all mounted on a vehicle or train of vehicles propelled to move forward and leave in place behind the finished fabricated pipeline ready for use. The internal and external surfaces of the pipeline wall are made of materials suitable for the intended pipeline application and type of weather exposure anticipated. The incorporation of these materials in tape form is also performed by winding these tapes the same way and in a programmed manner. The pipeline fabricating machinery can also be mounted aboard a ship to lay pipelines over or under water. The ship then moves forward and also leaves behind the completed and ready-to-use pipeline. From the location where the manufacturing starts to the location where that process ends, the finished pipeline wall then consists of a monolithic, jointless, solid and homogeneous structure.

Claims31

Dependent claims

The method of forming a continuous, jointless and uninterrupted reinforced plastic pipe comprising the steps of:

forming a continuous articulated mandrel;
supporting the mandrel at a plurality of mobile stations;
advancing the stations to carry the mandrel along forwardly at a predetermined speed;
winding strands of a material preimpregnated with a resin about a forward end of the mandrel at a forward one of the stations;
moving an external surface of the mandrel rearwardly as the strands are being wound to carry a pipe structure formed thereby rearwardly without any relative sliding motion between the external surfaces of the mandrel and of the strands;
curing the resin in the pipe structure at an intermediate one of the mobile stations located behind the forward station;
cooling the pipe at a rearward one of the stations located behind the intermediate mobile station;
and
extracting the external surface of the mandrel continuously from inside the pipe at a rearward end of the mandrel without any relative sliding motion between the external surface and the pipe.

6 more elements

A pipe fabricating apparatus comprising

means for moving the pipe fabricating apparatus forward, at the speed the pipe is being fabricated;
means for monitoring and supporting separate sections of the pipe fabricating apparatus on separate platforms, interconnected, articulated and propelled by a common power source;
means for continuously and uninterruptedly forming an articulated mandrel that extends from the first of said platforms to part of the last platform;
means for applying layers of plastic materials, reinforced with filaments, on said mandrel, to build a pipe wall;
means for constantly advancing the external surface of the mandrel automatically at the speed said layers of reinforced plastic materials are being applied onto the external surface of said mandrel, thereby preventing any relative longitudinal sliding motion between the materials being laid and the mandrel external surface;
means for hardening and strengthening said reinforced plastic materials, while said materials are supported by the mandrel;
means for vertically and laterally supporting, guiding and restraining the wall of the pipe being thus fabricated, and the mandrel therein, externally to the pipe wall and with no solid mechanical external contact being made with the pipe wall;
means for continuously and uninterruptedly extracting the mandrel external surface from inside the pipe wall and withdrawing its internal support means, as soon as the pipe wall has acquired the strength to support itself;
and
means for leaving behind the forward moving pipe fabricating apparatus a completed pipe, ready to be laid in place, still with respect to the ground preinstalled means arranged to receive and hold said finished pipe.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Continuous pipeline fabrication method

Life of this patent

Continuous pipeline fabrication method

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims31