JP2960186B2 - Pipe moving device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an in-pipe moving apparatus, and more particularly, to an in-pipe moving apparatus that contacts a pipe inner wall by a bending operation of a tubular elastic body so as to advance in the pipe.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various types of moving devices have been developed and put to practical use in nuclear power plants and chemical plants for checking and repairing the inside of piping. Many of these types of in-pipe moving devices have traveling wheels, but the actual piping has a complicated piping layout, such as vertical pipes and many T pipes.
A character-shaped branch portion and a bent portion are provided. In addition, there is also a portion in which a deposit adheres to the inner wall of the pipe, a part of the cross section is closed, and the pipe diameter changes like a reducer. For this reason, in an in-pipe moving apparatus that travels with traveling wheels, there are many parts that are difficult to pass, and the applicable range is limited.

[0003] Further, as an in-pipe moving apparatus capable of changing the pipe diameter and ascending the vertical pipe, an in-pipe moving apparatus having a mechanism for moving while supporting the inner wall of the pipe has been proposed. This type of in-pipe moving device is composed of a plurality of supporting elastic bags and a moving cylindrical elastic body. Of these, the cylindrical elastic body has a pressure chamber inside, and expands and contracts in the tube axis direction by supplying a working fluid from an external pressure source (not shown) to the pressure chamber. In addition, the elastic bag fixed to the cylindrical elastic body expands in the tube radial direction by the action of a working fluid supplied from another pressure source, abuts against the inner peripheral surface of the tube, and can support the apparatus main body. . Accordingly, by supplying a working fluid to each pressure chamber while being controlled by a control unit (not shown), the moving device is caused to perform a predetermined operation and move in the pipe.

[0004]

However, the in-pipe moving device which travels on the traveling wheels described above has a drawback that the structure of the traveling mechanism is complicated and its application range is limited. In addition, a tubular elastic body having a pressure chamber therein and an in-pipe moving device for operating an elastic bag require a plurality of pressure sources for supplying a working fluid to each pressure chamber, and furthermore, the pressure must be controlled according to each operation. The operation procedure must be complicated. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional technology and to provide an in-pipe moving apparatus that can freely move in a pipe with a simple structure.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention comprises a plurality of cylindrical elastic bodies connected in an axial direction, and each of the cylindrical elastic bodies has a plurality of internal pressures formed by partition walls. The chambers are divided into chambers, and by adjusting the pressure applied to each of the pressure chambers, the axis of each cylindrical elastic body can be freely bent. By giving a phase difference to the bending operation of the cylindrical elastic body, the plurality of cylindrical elastic bodies are operated to meander as a whole, and the inside of the pipe is moved by the contact between the surface of each cylindrical elastic body and the inner wall of the pipe. It is a feature.

[0006]

According to the present invention, by connecting a plurality of cylindrical elastic bodies in the axial direction and giving a phase difference to the bending operation of each cylindrical elastic body, the plurality of cylindrical elastic bodies meander as a whole. And the inner surface of each tubular elastic body and the inner wall of the tube are moved in contact with each other, so that the tubular elastic body is continuously pressed and moved along the inner wall of the tube by continuous bending operation. be able to.

[0007]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an in-pipe moving apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an entire in-pipe moving device inserted into a pipe T, and a tubular elastic body 2 which is a main body of the in-pipe moving device 1 has two substantially elastic members connected in a pipe axis direction. Cylindrical elastic body 2A of the same shape,
2B. Each of the cylindrical elastic bodies 2A and 2B has a plurality of pressure chambers 4 divided by partition walls 3 therein, and each of the pressure chambers 4 is connected to an operation tube 5 respectively. Each of these operation tubes 5 is connected to a pressure source (not shown) via an external pressure control valve 6. Also,
The pressure control valve 6 is electrically connected to a control unit 7, and is opened and closed by an operation command signal from the control unit 7. Thereby, a working fluid of a predetermined pressure is supplied to each pressure chamber 4 independently of the pressure source. In addition, the controller 10 allows the operator to manually send a command to the controller 7. Therefore, in order to grasp the state of the moving direction of the in-pipe moving device 1,
The D camera 11 is mounted.

Here, the structure of the cylindrical elastic members 2 connected in series in the pipe axis direction will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2A, the cylindrical elastic body 2 is configured by connecting elastic bodies 12A and 12B forming an outer peripheral wall in series in the tube axis direction. A tip sealing portion 13 and a root sealing portion 14 are fixed to both ends. This elastic body main body 12A (12B) has two unit cylindrical elastic bodies 15A1 and 15A1 having the same shape with a semicircular cross section.
5A2 (15B1, 15B2) are integrally formed by aligning the flat portions and bonding them in the axial direction. For this reason, the elastic partition 3 extends in the axial direction of the cylindrical elastic body by the bonded portion. The elastic body 3 is formed by the elastic partition walls 3.
A (12B) has two pressure chambers 4A1, 4A2 (4B
1, 4B2) is formed. Two operation tubes 5A1 and 5A2 are connected to the side surface of the elastic body 12A, and communicate with the internal pressure chambers 4A1 and 4A2. Two operation tubes 5B1 and 5B2 are fitted into the root sealing portion 14 fixed to the elastic body 12B, and communicate with the pressure chambers 4B1 and 4B2. Furthermore, the unit cylindrical elastic bodies 15A1, 15A2 (15
Reinforcing fibers 16 are spirally wound around the outer periphery of B1, 15B2) at a close interval, and a silicone rubber coating 17 of an elastic material is formed so as to cover the outer peripheral surface. For this reason, the cylindrical elastic body 2 exhibits anisotropic elasticity due to the combined action of the reinforcing fiber and the silicone rubber, and the direction in which the longitudinal elastic coefficient is small substantially coincides with the axial direction of the cylindrical elastic body, and the axial direction L
In the radial directions R _A and R _B orthogonal to the axial direction, the fibers 16 restrain the deformation, so that the longitudinal elastic coefficient is large and the fibers 16 are hard to expand. The two operation tubes 5A connected to the side surface of the elastic body 12A.
The operation tubes 5A1 and 5A2 can be easily handled by integrating 1,5A2 with the elastic body 12B with the silicone rubber coating 17.

Here, an example of the operation of the cylindrical elastic body 2 having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG. First, a working fluid is sent from a pressure source (not shown) to the pressure chamber through the operation tube 5B1 to increase the internal pressure. At this time, the pressure chamber 4B1 extends in the axial direction, and the cylindrical elastic body 2B curves in the _RA direction as shown in FIG. If Takamere the pressure in the pressure chamber 4A2 through the manipulation tube 5A2 At the same time, it is possible to bend the tubular elastic body 2A in the opposite direction of the R _B direction and cylindrical elastic member 2B. Thus, the four pressure chambers 4A1, 4A2, 4
By changing the combination of pressure applied to B1, 4B2,
The cylindrical elastic bodies 2A and 2B can be operated as if they meander. If the pressures of the two pressure chambers 4A1, 4A2 (or 4B1, 4B2) are increased equally, the cylindrical elastic body 2
A and 2B can be extended straight in the axial direction L.

Next, the relationship between the bending operation sequence for moving the in-pipe moving device composed of the cylindrical elastic bodies 2A and 2B in the pipe and the pressure adjustment state of the pressure chamber will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5A shows the postures I to VI of the bending and expanding and contracting operations of the cylindrical elastic bodies 2A and 2B, and shows the pressure chambers 4A1, 4A2 and 4B.
The working fluid pressures of ₁ , 4B2 are indicated by P _A1 , P _A2 , P _B1 , P _B2 . Further, the pressure chambers in the pressurized state in the postures I to VI are hatched, and in this embodiment, the posture I
Pressure chamber 4A to realize the bending operation sequence of ~ VI
The pressure of 1, 4A2 is controlled by increasing the phase by 90 ° with respect to the pressure of the pressure chambers 4B1, 4B2. Thereby, the cylindrical elastic bodies 2A and 2B are curved as if meandering. This series of bending operations performs a deformation operation that does not change the position of the center point C of the in-pipe moving device at all in a space in which the movement of the cylindrical elastic body is not restricted at all. At this time, each of the pressure chambers 4A1, 4A2,
FIG. 3B shows the relationship between the pressure change of the working fluid pressures P _A1 , P _A2 , P _B1 , P _B2 of 4B1 and 4B2 and the elapsed time. This pressure adjustment sequence is stored in the control unit 7 of FIG. 1, and its setting can be freely changed depending on the number of connected tubular elastic bodies 2. In FIG. 3B, for example, the pressure chamber 4A1 is pressurized to P _A1 = P in the postures I to IV, and depressurized in the postures V to VI, and P _A1 = 0.
It is set to be. The pressure pattern during this period is set so as to gradually increase and decrease at a predetermined rate so that the cylindrical elastic body changes shape smoothly, but it is also possible to change the pressure pattern in a rectangular or sine wave shape It is. As described above, the pressure change curve P1 of the pressure chamber 4A1 and the pressure change curve P3 of the pressure chamber 4B1 have a relationship in which the pressure change curve P1 of the pressure chamber 4A1 is advanced by 90 °, and the pressure change curve of the pressure chamber 4A2. P2 and the pressure change curve P4 of the pressure chamber 4B2 have a relationship in which the pressure change curve P2 of the pressure chamber 4A1 is advanced by 90 ° in phase.

Next, a state in which the in-pipe moving device 1 advances in the pipe will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory diagram tracing a bending operation of the in-pipe moving apparatus in an ascending experiment in a vertical pipe actually performed. 4 show states corresponding to the postures I to VI in FIG. 3, and the posture I shows an initial state in which the in-pipe moving device rises in the arrow A direction. At this time, in the in-pipe moving device, the tubular elastic body 2A is linear and the tubular elastic body 2B is curved into a predetermined shape, and the lower end of the tubular elastic body 2B and the substantially central position of the tubular elastic bodies 2A and 2B ( The tube is supported at a predetermined position in the tube such that the inner wall of the tube is pressed by the abdomen. Here, the shape of the cylindrical elastic body 2 is S
Cylindrical elastic body 2 based on the behavior in postures III to VI
The state in which is increased will be briefly described. First, when the tubular elastic body 2 has an S-shape as shown in the posture III, the tubular elastic body 2B is in a curved state having the smallest curvature, and the point α is in contact with the inner wall of the pipe. Here, the measurement reference length L from the point α
_The point γ is plotted on the cylindrical elastic body 2A with ₀ set in the tube axis direction. The actual length along the surface of the cylindrical elastic body 2 with respect to the measurement reference length L ₀ (= γ-α) is defined as L. From this state, the cylindrical elastic body 2 is caused to bend in the sequence shown in FIG. The posture of the tubular elastic body 2 changes from IV to V, and the surface of the tubular elastic body 2 and the inner wall of the pipe continuously contact from the point α to the point γ via the point β. At this time, it can be seen that the height of the point γ of the tubular elastic body 2 in the pipe in the posture V is increased by ΔL from the height of the posture III. Thus the postures I-VI-I '
The cylindrical elastic body can move by ΔL in a series of the above sequence. In this experiment, the inside of the pipe was raised by the above operation, but it is also possible to lower the inside of the pipe by reversing the phases of the cylindrical elastic bodies 2A and 2B.
In this embodiment, the phase difference between the cylindrical elastic body 2A and the cylindrical elastic body 2B is set to 90 °, but the phase difference is 60 ° to 12 °.
It has been confirmed that the pipe can be moved even in the range of 0 °. Further, the present invention is not limited to the two pressure chambers as in this embodiment,
Even in a cylindrical elastic body having a chamber pressure chamber, a similar bending operation can be performed by setting the pressure of each pressure chamber.

[0012]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, by connecting a plurality of cylindrical elastic bodies in the axial direction and giving a phase difference to the bending operation of each cylindrical elastic body, The cylindrical elastic body is moved so as to meander as a whole, and moves inside the pipe by a contact between the surface of each cylindrical elastic body and the inner wall of the pipe, so that it moves in a complicated-shaped pipe with a simple structure. It has effects such as being able to do.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of a pipe moving device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a configuration and an operation state of the cylindrical elastic body shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a relationship between a curved state of the cylindrical elastic body shown in FIG. 1 and a working fluid pressure.

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory view showing a rising state of the cylindrical elastic body shown in FIG. 1 in a vertical pipe.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 In-pipe moving device 2 Cylindrical elastic body 4 Pressure chamber 5 Operation tube

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of cylindrical elastic bodies connected in an axial direction are provided, and each cylindrical elastic body is divided into a plurality of pressure chambers by partition walls, and adjusts pressure to each of the pressure chambers. By doing so, the axis of each cylindrical elastic body is freely bendable, and by giving a phase difference to the bending operation of each adjacent cylindrical elastic body among the plurality of cylindrical elastic bodies, An in-pipe moving apparatus characterized in that the body is moved so as to meander as a whole and is moved in the pipe by contact between the surface of each tubular elastic body and the inner wall of the pipe.