The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 18, 1985
Filed:
Dec. 02, 1983
Dean P Hemphill, Houston, TX (US);
Shell Oil Company, Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
During winter construction of offshore Arctic pipelines, it is frequently necessary to cut an ice slot in order to lay a pipeline on the sea bottom. Once such slots are cut, they rapidly freeze over, so that it is necessary to remove ice from the slot during the pipelaying time span. The present invention provides a method and apparatus for removing the newly formed ice from the ice slot. An inclined plane, sized to fit within the ice slot width to be maintained, penetrates below the surface of the water within the slot and to a depth at or below the underside of the newly formed ice on the water's surface. By moving the plane along the surface, the ice is raised, broken, and then conveyed upward and then to one side out of the ice slot as spoil.