Steel wrapped pressure vessel

A light weight Type II helical wound cylindrical metal pressure vessel comprised of at least a thin walled steel seamless inner liner or shell formed as one-piece having spun or integrally formed ends free of welds, the inner shell being a cylindrical vessel made of steel of strength 950-1400 MPa and a tensile ductility of over 10% and has no longitudinal seam, for leak proof containment of gas which is wrapped with layers of high strength reinforcing wire of a diameter of 0.35 mm, where the wire is monofilament steel wire having a strength 3000 MPa to 5000 MPa and where the average lateral space between the reinforcing wire is 0 to 5% of the wire diameter and where a polymer is applied to fully fill the inter wire cavities and adhere to wire surfaces and where a non-metallic fabric soaked with the polymer is wrapped on the top of the reinforcing monofilament steel wire to provide a protective layer of 0.5 to 5 mm thickness, and wherein the reinforcing monofilament steel wire has a cut end or ends taped or otherwise affixed to the liner at a start of the wrap inward of an outermost coil and a cut end or ends at a finish layer underlying the non-metallic fabric, the monofilament steel wire being wrapped in the absence of welding, and wherein the vessel is wrapped having 4 to 6 layers of wire embedded in the polymer with the strength efficiency of the monofilament wire utilized at burst pressures of the vessel in the range of 90 to 100 percent of the wire strength due to a high winding density and wire ductility reducing the number of layers and overall thickness of the wrapped vessel to accommodate the expansion of the liner at all load levels up to burst pressure thereby reducing stress in the thin walled inner liner under expansion at all load levels, wherein the steel wire has a reduction in area at tensile fracture of more than 20% wherein the wrapped layers of high strength reinforcing monofilament wire covering the main body expand and contract with the expansion and contraction of the liner or shell of the pressure vessel without uncoiling.

A light weight Type II helical wound cylindrical metal pressure vessel comprised of at least a thin walled steel seamless inner liner or shell formed as one-piece having spun or integrally formed ends free of welds, the inner shell being a cylindrical vessel made of steel of strength 950-1400 MPa and a tensile ductility of over 10% and has no longitudinal seam, for leak proof containment of gas which is wrapped with layers of one or more high strength reinforcing wires or in a multi-layered wrap-around covering at least the main body of the inner liner or shell, the steel wires being in one strand, each strand being a monofilament wire of a diameter of 0.35 mm, where the strands are steel wire of strength 2000 MPa to 7000 MPa and where the average lateral space between the reinforcing strands is 0 to 25% of the monofilament wire diameter and where a polymer is applied to fully fill inter wire cavities and adhere to wire surfaces and where a non-metallic fabric soaked with the polymer is wrapped on the top of the one or more reinforcing strands to provide a protective layer of 0.5 to 5 mm thickness, and wherein the one or more reinforcing strands have a cut end or ends taped or otherwise affixed to the liner at a start of the wrap inward of an outermost coil and a cut end or ends at a finish layer underlying the non-metallic fabric, the one or more strands being wrapped in the absence of welding and wherein the vessel is wrapped having 4 layers of the monofilament wire embedded in the polymer has the strength efficiency of the strands utilized at burst pressures of the vessel in the range of 90 to 100 percent of the wire strength due to a high winding density and wire ductility and the multi-layered wrap-around layers of wire covering the main body expand and contract with the expansion and contraction of the liner or shell of the pressure vessel without uncoiling.