Baj Limited

Bristol Aerojet Limited

Vickers Plc of Vickers House

Arthur L Brake

Charles D Papworth

Andrew L Pole

David A Harper

Ivan H Dimmock

A marine unit has an elongate payload-containing body, a plurality of legs each connected by a pivot at its inner end to the lower end of the body, and an actuator in the body for deploying the legs to cause the body to stand upright on the sea bed. The actuator is a double-acting constant displacement piston and cylinder arrangement connected to each of the legs by a link. The link is connected to the piston by a second pivot and to the leg by a third pivot, the geometry of the three pivots being such that the linkage is self-locking and reverse loads on the leg are not transferred to the actuator.

Marine units

A marine unit for location on the sea bed has a cylindrical body and legs which are connected to the body by a pivot adjacent one end of the body. Each leg has a toothed member which engages a common worm driven by a motor. The legs are connected by webs of net. The body and nets nest within the legs for storage, the legs are partly opened for the descent, and are opened fully when the unit reaches the sea bottom to support the unit with its axis approximately vertical.

A releasable anchor connector for a tension leg platform in which a tether with a bore is locked in a template insert at the seabed by means of a series of locking fingers acting through a ring and a resilient connector. The tether is unlocked by locating a ram that disengages the fingers at the end of the bore and applying hydraulic pressure to the ram by means of a hose passed down the bore and a delivery head at the end of the hose. The delivery head comprises a hollow body, a piston slidable in the body and a valve member slidably mounted on the piston. A spring urges the valve member to engage a valve seat and a spring urges the piston forwards. Hydraulic pressure of the fluid in the hose forces the piston back so that a split collet moves back with the piston and expands to hold the delivery head in the position behind a shoulder formed in a bore leading to the ram, after which the piston lifts the valve member off its seat, so transmitting the hydraulic pressure to the ram. The springs close the valve as the hydraulic pressure is released.

Releasable anchor connector for tension leg platform

A combination of a pressure vessel for pneumatic fluids at pressures above 200 kilograms per square centimeter and a stationary mounting therefor, the pressure vessel having a neck which fits into a socket in the mounting and is retained therein by a locking mechanism, for example, a bayonet coupling or a polygonal flange on the neck passing through an aperture of the same shape in a flange in the socket. The neck contains a valve and the combination includes a mechanism for controlling the valve. Such mechanism may be in the neck or in the mounting and preferably comprises an axially movable valve operating member mounted by an external screw thread in a second member and coupled to a third member, such as a manually operable knob, by a coupling which transmits rotation, but not translation.

Mounting of pressure vessels

A valved coupling for high pressure fluids, particularly for use with pressure vessels containing gases at pressures above 200 kilograms per square centimeter, the coupling providing a first flow path containing a first valve and a second flow path extending from a point in the first flow path downstream of the first valve to a venting passage and a second valve in the second path, the coupling comprising a bore, a valve operating member which is axially movable in the bore, a valve member which is concentric with the valve operating member and is axially movable relative to the bore and the valve operating member, a first axially facing valve seat on the valve operating member, a second valve seat on the valve member facing in the opposite direction to the first valve seat, and stop means engaged by the valve member not earlier than the closure of the first valve in movement of the valve member in a direction to close the first valve whereby after the first path is closed the second path is opened to vent fluid from the coupling, the second path being closed before the first valve is opened again.

Growing community of inventors

Winscombe, United Kingdom

Arthur L Brake