British Gas Plc

Bg Corporation

William Edgar Robinson

Derek Stoves

Peter George Bennett

A steel service pipe is connected to a main by a tee. A flexible assembly is inserted through the open end of the pipe and through the tee into the main. The flexible assembly includes a section of lower stiffness and a ball and socket connection of even lower stiffness at its leading end. The ball is connected to a weight. The weight falls down on entering the tee and creates a turning moment on the assembly. A plastic pipe is inserted through the open end of the pipe over the assembly and is inserted through the tee into the main. The pipe has a corrugated leading end which is more flexible than the remainder of the pipe and has a tapered nose terminating in a cylindrical mouth which enters an aperture in a liner in the main.

Method of installing pipes

A pipe repair clamp especially for subsea offshore work has two half-shells held together around the pipe by two sets of diametrically opposite interlocking formations comprising in each set a series of abutments integral with a half-shell and a series of hooks integral with the other half-shell. The abutments are arranged in a castellated formation and provide first surfaces opposed to and engaged by second surfaces provided by the hooks. The half-shells have opposed abutting longitudinal faces with a longitudinal seal between each two abutting longitudinal faces extending along the half-shells. The longitudinal seals at their ends seal against 180.degree. seals at each end of the clamp, each 180.degree. seal being at an end of a respective half-shell. An annular gap 18 between the clamp 10 and the pipe is fillable with repair grout.

Growing community of inventors

Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

William Edgar Robinson