Water bottom ore sampler and method of using the same
AssigneeWilliamson Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc.
InventorsYoshio Asakawa, Ross E. Murray, Freshteh Ahmadian
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A water bottom ore sampler includes a submersible housing for positioning on or near a water bottom, a riser duct mounted within the submersible housing and movable vertically relative to the submersible housing, a drilling assembly disposed within the riser duct for excavating the water bottom, a passage defined within the riser duct through which a particulate fluid mixture produced by the excavation can flow up the riser duct and into an interior of the submersible housing, and a sample container disposed within the submersible housing for collecting ore from the particulate fluid mixture received in the submersible housing.
Claims10
A water bottom ore sampler, comprising:
- a submersible housing for positioning on or near a water bottom;
- a riser duct mounted within the submersible housing and movable vertically relative to the submersible housing;
- a drilling assembly disposed within the riser duct and extensible from the housing for excavating sediments on the bottom of a body of water;
- a passage defined within the riser duct through which a particulate fluid mixture produced by the excavation can flow up the riser duct and into an interior of the submersible housing;
- and
- a sample container disposed within the submersible housing for collecting ore from the particulate fluid mixture received in the submersible housing.
A method of sampling ore from a water bottom, comprising:
- positioning a submersible housing having a vertically movable riser duct mounted therein at or near a water bottom;
- operating a drilling assembly mounted within the riser duct to excavate the water bottom;
- flowing a particulate fluid mixture produced by the excavation up a passage defined within the riser duct and into the submersible housing;
- and
- collecting ore from the particulate fluid mixture in a sample container disposed within the submersible housing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.