Buoyant propulsion underwater trenching apparatus
OwnerRichard A. Andersoninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An underwater self-propelled trenching apparatus for burying a pipeline or the like below the bottom of a body of water having a frame that is positioned on each side of the pipeline, jets in the form of nozzles that spray pressurized streams of water to dig the trench, a set of rollers supported on the apparatus for contacting the pipeline and guiding the apparatus along the pipeline and a plurality of thrusters pivotally supported on the frame for propelling the trenching apparatus along the pipeline including the thrusters having more axes of movement in the horizontal and vertical planes for impelling water entering the thruster out of the thrusters to generate any one of multiple forces applied to the trenching apparatus along a horizontal or vertical plane.
Claims22
An underwater trenching apparatus for burying a pipeline or cables beneath the bottom of a body of water comprising:
- a frame for positioning over the pipeline to be buried,
- jet means supported by said frame, comprising a plurality of vertically arranged nozzles for digging a trench in said bottom for burying said pipeline,
- a set of rollers secured to said apparatus and adapted to contact said pipeline to direct said apparatus along said pipeline,
- a plurality of hydraulic thrusters for receiving water therein and having means thereon to expel this water to provide a force reactive to the force of said expelled water,
- said thrusters including support means capable to direct the expelled water from a selected thruster in a selected direction and generate and apply a reactive force to the trenching apparatus in a selected direction within a vertical and horizontal plane.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.