Electromechanical Technologies, Inc.

Cypress In-line Inspection, LLC

Arthur K Fox

Philip M Hoyt

William Geoffrey Callahan

Calvin L Simmons

Blake Kay Burton

Michael P Sheffield

An improved geometry sensor for an inline inspection tool used for determining defects in a pipe or other conduit. The sensor having an arm pivotally mounted to a base on a body of an inline inspection tool and a spring biasing the arm away from the body of the inline inspection tool. A magnet mounted to the arm, the magnet having a magnetic field. A Hall effect sensor fixed relative to the body of the of the inline inspection. The outer end of the arm moves along an interior surface of a conduit as the tool passes through a pipe with the arm and magnet pivoting relative to the body and the Hall effect sensor detecting movement and deflection of the arm by measuring changes in the magnetic field.

Geometry sensor for inline inspection tool

The present invention provides a way to increase the density of Hall effect sensors on a MFL inline inspection tool mounting the sensors on a first circuit board which overlies a second circuit board. Op amps for the sensors which condition and filter the analog signal from the sensors are mounted on the first circuit board. Microprocessors mounted on the second circuit board receive the analog signal from the op amp and translate it into a digital signal. Use of the stacked circuit boards doubles the amount of area to mount the sensors and their op amps and microprocessors while maintaining the same footprint. This results in being able to increase the number of Hall effect sensors in that footprint area. In other embodiments the number of layers of circuit boards may be increased beyond two.

Dual layer circuit board for sensors on a pipeline inspection tool

A set of radial springs to bias the sensor arms of an inline pipeline inspection tool radially outward towards the pipe wall. The springs are resilient clips typically made of metal which bias adjacent sensor arms away from one another and radially outward. There are two sets of springs, a forward set and a rearward set which operate independent of each other. Each set of springs operates on a plane which is perpendicular to the axis of the body of the tool and perpendicular to the planes upon which the sensor arms extend.

Radial springs on sensor arms of pipeline inspection tool

An in-line inspection tool comprising primary and secondary sensor suites is disclosed. The primary sensor suite may detect both interior and exterior defects. The secondary sensor suite may comprise a plurality of housings distributed in the circumferential direction around the body of the tool. Each housing may contain at least one flux sensor and at least one flux concentrator. The flux concentrator may increase the flux delivered to the flux sensor, thereby increasing the sensitivity of the secondary sensor suite while reducing the number of flux sensors required. The secondary sensor suite may detect substantially exclusively interior defects. By comparing the outputs of the primary and secondary sensor suites, a user may determine whether a defect is located on the interior or exterior of a pipeline being inspected.

Defect discriminator for in-line inspection tool

An in-line inspection tool comprising sensors mounted on inspection assemblies is disclosed. Each inspection assembly may be connected to the rest of the in-line inspection tool by two linkages. A first linkage may pivotally connect at one end thereof to a first end of an inspection assembly and pivotally connect at the other end thereof to the rest of the in-line inspection assembly. A second linkage may pivotally connect at one end thereof to a second end of the inspection assembly and pivotally connect at the other end thereof to the rest of the in-line inspection tool. The second linkage may comprise a first section and a second section pivotally connected to one another. Accordingly, the first and second linkages may support, exclusively through pivoting, both translational and rotational movement of the inspection assembly within a radial plane containing the central axis of the in-line inspection tool.

Linkage assembly for in-line inspection tool

An in-line inspection tool comprising a sensor suite, a processor processing the signal generated by at least one sensor of the sensor suite, and a canister housing the processor is disclosed. The canister may comprise a canister body formed as a hollow cylinder extending along a central axis from a first end to a second end. The canister may further comprise a canister lid inserted within the first end of the canister body. An alignment mechanism may prevent rotation of the canister lid with respect to the canister body about the central axis. A retaining ring may threadedly engage the first end of the canister body to maintain the canister lid within the first end of the canister body.

Growing community of inventors

Murray, UT, United States of America

Arthur K Fox