Flexible drill rod
AssigneeKemtech International Pty, Ltd.
InventorBrendan Edmond O'Neill
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A drill rod for clearing obstructing material from the interior of a tapping pipe used for evacuation of aluminium from a reduction cell of an aluminium smelter by drilling, wherein the drill rod is flexible, whereby it may drill obstructing material from said tapping pipe, through a bend in the tapping pipe.
Claims6
A drill rod for clearing obstructing material from the interior of a tapping pipe used for evacuation of aluminium from a reduction cell of an aluminium smelter by drilling, wherein the drill rod is flexible and is comprised of a plurality of links interconnected for rotation about a longitudinal axis of the rod with coupling means interconnecting each adjacent pair of links for permitting substantially universal movement of said links with respect to each other transversely relative to said longitudinal axis, the coupling means permitting relative displacement between adjacent links whereby an axial length of the connected links can be varied between a relatively compressed length and a relatively uncompressed length, said coupling means, when the connected links have a relatively compressed length, at least relatively limiting the universal movement permitted between adjacent links.
An apparatus for drilling obstructing material from within a tapping pipe of a reduction cell of an aluminium smelter comprising means for mounting the pipe in a substantially fixed condition, a drilling rod having a cutting head, means for rotating the drilling rod for rotating said cutting head and means for axially advancing the drilling rod to cause the cutting head and drilling rod to pass into the tapping pipe for effecting said drilling, wherein the drilling rod is flexible and is comprised of a plurality of links interconnected for rotation about a longitudinal axis of the rod with coupling means interconnecting each adjacent pair of links for permitting substantially universal movement of said links with respect to each other transversely relative to said longitudinal axis, the coupling means permitting relative displacement between adjacent links whereby an axial length of the connected links can be varied between a relatively compressed length and a relatively uncompressed length, said coupling means, when the connected links have a relatively compressed length, at least relatively limiting the universal movement permitted between adjacent links.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.