Crts, Inc.

Commercial Resins Company

Russell M Langley

David Paulley

John D Carter

Keith R Roberts

James A Huggins

John D Lindemann

Darrell Davis

Steve D Hayes

Dale G Davis

Michael E O'Neill

Robert J Hart

Jarod D Carmichael

Charles F Haworth

There is provided herein an electrical robotic system for locating, cleaning, and repairing holidays within coated pipe that are proximate to a girth weld. In a preferred arrangement, a robotic train will be placed in the pipeline that will perform the functions of holiday location, cleaning/preparation of the surface containing the holiday, and repair thereof, in a single run through the pipeline.

Pipeline internal field joint cleaning, coating, and inspection robot

There is provided herein a robot-based electrical system for locating holidays within coated pipe that does not utilize a grounding wire. In a preferred arrangement, the robot will carry a metal rotating brush/capacitive pad combination and changes in the capacitance in the brush/pad circuit will be used to identify imperfections in the interior coating of the pipe and especially those located proximate a girth weld. In another preferred embodiment, a circumferential brush will be used that allows testing of the integrity of the internal coating throughout the length of the pipe as the robot travels the pipeline.

Internal pipe coating inspection robot

An inspection robot is provided to traverse the interior of a pipeline for the purpose of checking the coating at the interior surface of the pipeline at the weld seams. The robot is designed to determine the thickness of the coatings and to provide a visual and recordable reading thereof. The robot is provided with a holiday detector in the form of a conductive brush mounted on a rotatable hub and adapted to sweep against the weld seam so as to locate any voids in the coating by means of electrical conductance, thus causing a holiday marker to activate and mark the pipeline interior surface so that the site can be revisited for repair. The robot is further provided with a mil gauge probe mounted on a slidable plunger attached to the rotatable hub for measuring coating thickness on the weld seam and for providing data via a digital mil gauge readout; the conductive brush, the slidable plunger for mil gauge probe, the digital mil gauge readout, and the forward portion of the robot being all provided with cameras which simultaneously record the movements and data encountered by the inspection robot to provide real-time feedback to a remote operator.

Internal field joint inspection robot

Apparatus for spraying a powder circumferentially around a pipe joint on a pipe comprising a yoke engagable with the pipe, one or more powder dispensers mounted on the yoke and disposed over the pipe joint, means for driving the yoke circumferentially about the pipe, each powder dispenser having an inner housing provided with an opening positioned adjacent the surface of the pipe for supplying a quantity of air-powder suspension to the surface of the pipe over the pipe joint, each powder dispensing device also having an outer housing surrounding the inner housing and being provided with an opening positioned adjacent the pipe and surrounding the opening of the inner housing, the inner and outer housings of each powder dispenser defining a space therebetween. A powder suspension device is provided having a hollow container adapted to contain a quantity of powder therein and a means for introducing air under pressure adjacent the bottom of the container to place the powder in suspension in the container. A blower is also provided having an inlet and a tangential outlet from which a stream of air emerges. A powder return housing is located beneath the blower and above the powder suspension device and in communication with both of these devices. A pair of tangential inlet pipes arranged approximately 180.degree. apart on the return housing are adapted to return excess powder from the powder dispensing devices.

Apparatus for spraying powder circumferentially around a pipe joint

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Tulsa, OK, United States of America

Russell M Langley