Pipe linings
AssigneeHumes Limited
InventorsCharles R. W. Kayser, Kathleen Trippier
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A spraying device is drawn through an underground pipe and sprays a thixotropic resin onto the inner walls of the pipe. The resin cures and hardens, to form an internal lining to the pipe. The resin has sufficient thixotropy to enable it to be applied in a single operation to a significant thickness, preferably in the range 2 to 25 mm. The lining which is formed upon curing therefore has significant structural strength. To allow such a resin to be pumped from the surface down to the spraying device, along a significant length of tubing, the resin is firstly heated, prior to being pumped. Also disclosed is a swab for swabbing a pipe immediately prior to the application of a lining therein.
Claims16
A method of forming a new pipe within an existing underground pipe, comprising the steps of moving a spraying means through the existing pipe, pumping a curable thixotropic resin to the spraying means, causing the spraying means to spray continuously the thixotropic resin onto the inner walls of the existing pipe to build up in one pass of the spraying means a predetermined self-supporting thickness of the resin which, while uncured, is supported in position by its thrxotropy and adherence to said walls, and allowing the self-supporting resin to cure and harden, said predetermined thickness being such as to provide upon curing of the resin a new self-contained pipe having structural strength, within and independent of the existing pipe such that the formed structure would continue to function in the absence of the existing pipe should the existing pipe decay away altogether.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.