Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
21 63673
Ha95S49/Dr.L./Ha/15.11.1995 P~T/EP 94101688
Method and apparatus for lining pipelin~s, particularly ~or sanitary
purposes
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for lining pipelines, particu-
5 larly for the sake of renovation, using a film or cloth material and a curable
medium.
Renovating leaking pipelines is becoming increasingly important, since leakage
in such pipelines is extremely problematic from an ecological standpoint. The
wastewater, chemical agents, gases or other media escaping from these line sys-
10 tems reach the environment, where they have undesirable effects such as con-
tamination of the soil around the installed pipeline. As environmental protection
laws have become more stringent - predominantly codifying liability of the origina-
tor, in other words the operator of such line systems - the demand for immediateelimination of leaks or leakage in pipeline systems becomes more and more ur-
15 gent. Renovating pipelines by exposing the defective parts of the line and replac-
ing them with new pipe parts - which is intrinsically conceivable - would entailextremely high costs. For these reasons, various renovation methods have thus
far been developed and practiced, whose basic principle is to line the inside ofthe defective pipeline with a prefabricated replacement tube and hence to elimi-
20 nate the leaking condition of the line system. Specifically, the following renovationmethods are known:
The DE-OS 41 03 847 discloses a method and an apparatus for lining elongated
openings by means of a wrapping stripe. The wrapping stripe is fed to the
21 63673
wrapping apparatus and is formed helically to the lining. The feeding of the heli-
cally formed wrapping stripe is done in such a way that the stripe is transported
forwardly by means of the rotation of a double pipe provided with a screw threadin connection with a feeding roll and a counterroll. After its production, the
5 wrapped lining is pressed against the pipeline to be lined. This indirect position-
ing of the wrapping stripe on the inner surface of the pipeline to be lined results in
a two-step process having the disadvantage that a complicated apparatus is re-
quired in order to carry out the method. This severely affects the economy of the
known method. Furthermore, the known method does not exhibit a suitable flexi-
10 bility in respect to the shape of the lining to be produced.
European Patent Document 0 228 g98 describes a method and an apparatus forrenovating or producing installed pipelines that for retroactively lining the inside
of the defective pipe uses a three-layer flexible tube, which comprises an innerlayer and an outer layer, at least one of which is permeable to radiation and at15 least one of which is gas-tight and an intermediate layer impregnated with UV-
radiation-curable resin. The already preshaped three-layer tube is introduced into
the pipeline to be renovated through a man-sized first shaft, and inflated, and the
radiation-curable resin is cured in the inflated state of the tube with the aid of UV
radiation. The inflation and curing of the tube, which has already been prefabri-
20 cated outside the pipe to be renovated, are carried out by using a traction rope,mounted in the longitudinal axis of the pipeline, to pull an apparatus through the
tube that has been introdu&ed into the pipeline, this apparatus having a conicalentry and expansion face on its face end. From this entry and expansion face outto the pipe wall, the tube resting on the traction rope is widened circularly from in-
25 side and pressed against the pipeline with compressed air or with rounded roll-
ers, and at the same time is made to cure by means of UV radiation emitted by a
radiation source in the apparatus.
The known method has the disadva,ltage that the three-layer tube, manufactured
outside the pipeline and intended to be introduced in an already prefabricated
2 1 6 3 6 3
state into the pipeline to be renovated, is extremely inconvenient, and hence ex-
pensive~ to manipulate: When a length of pipeline is renovated, there must be a
man-sized and there~ore reJatively large shaft present on both ends of the length
of pipeline, on the one hand so that the three-layer tube can be introduced into5 the pipeline that is to be renovated, and on the other so that two deflection rollers
can be mounted so as to allow the traction rope that moves the three-layer tube
through the pipeline to be renovated from one shaft to the opposite shaft to be
deflected accordingly. The above reference does also propose that the three-
layer tube to be laid in the pipeline that is to be renovated be pulled in by a soil-
10 displacing, on-site rocket travelling in the interior of the pipeline. But this variant
of the method again has the disadvantage that since the pipeline to be renovatedmust be ~ccessible on both ends, this soil-displacing, on-site rocket must be re-
moved from the line system again after pulling the three-layer tube through the
pipeline to be renovated. Moreover, this variant has the disadvantage that with it
15 only relatively short lengths of pipeline can be renovated, since the weight of the
tube to be dragged by this kind of traction device brings about a frictional foroe in
the opposite direction from the advancement direction, and this force relativelyquickly exoeeds the maximum drag load of this kind of traction device.
A further disad\ranlage of the known method is that the three-layer tube used for
20 it is extremely complicated and expensive to manufacture. It requires an appara-
tus that has a supply drum for an intermediate layer of the tube to be produced,the intermediate layer being place around an inner layer; a tublike impregnationsegment with an impregnating resin; a further apparatus for coating the intermedi-
ate layer, wrapped around the inner layer and impregnated, with an outer layer;
25 and a further supply roller for a protective jacket for the three-layer tube. To
manufacture the three-layer tube, the outer layer, pushed together in the mannerof a bellows, is then slipped loosely, in an adequate amount, over a hollow car-rier. Next, the inle"l,ediate layer, wrapped around the inner layer, pressed flat,
and rolled onto the supply roller, is drawn into the carrier and held by pressing
30 rollers. After that, the pressing rollers are tipped back into the resin of the
21 63673
-
impregnating segment, whereupon the intermediate layer - pressed by the press-
ing rollers - dips into the resin as far as the drive rollers of the impregnation seg-
ment. Finally, the intermediate layer, put into contact with the outer layer, ispulled through the hollow carrier with simultaneous activation of the drive mecha-
5 nism for the drive rollers. In this process, the plastic f Im forming the outer layer ofthe three-layer tube peels off of the carrier and progressively envelops the inter-
mediate layer. Hence a three-layer tube that is so complicated and expensive to
make - and furthermore has relatively high rigidity and is not very flexible - disad-
vantageously leads to extremely high renovation costs, so that economical reno-
10 vation of defective pipelines is not possible with this known method.
From Swiss Patent 675 760, a method for internal renovation of lines is known,which uses a multilayer tube saturated with photopolymer resin for internal reno-
vation of existing lines, above all water lines, in an uninterrupted manner and
without changing the amount of space inside. In this known method as well, a
15 traction rope running from a first shaft through the pipeline to be renovated to a
second shaft and guided over deflection rollers mounted in the shafts is used topull in the tube, so that once again in this method, the aforementioned disadvan-
tages involved in introducing the renovation tube into the defective pipeline arise.
After the introduction, the multilayer tube is sealed in airtight fashion at both ends
20 and inflated by blowing in a gaseous and optionally oxygen-free medium and isthen kept at a constant pressure such that the tube is pressed against the innerwall of the pipeline, yet without reaching the elongation limits of the tube. Next,
the resin is cured in situ by a UV radiation source, which has been introduced into
the tube prior to its being sealed airtight. It will be appreciated that no further ex-
25 planation is needed to show that this known method is complicated and thereforeexpensive in terms of how it is to be performed in practice.
Moreover, this known method has the further disadvantage that the prefabricated
renovation tube is not only N~convenient to manipulate; it is also extremely
- 21 63673
expensive to produce, because to construct the renovation tube, a first, liquid-and gas-tight inner tube, with a tubular but UV-permeable outer layer of feltlike,
non-woven or woven material, is put into the form of a roller or placed in layers in
a container with an upper outlet line. Irl the aforementioned container, a negative
5 pressure that is less than 0.5 bar is then generated. At this negative pressure, the
tube is p~ssed through a tub of resin and saturated and wrung out, whereupon
the wrung-out tube is placed in one course over a glass-fiber-reinforced, liquid-
and gas-tight and UV~ermeable tube casing system. This reinforced tube casing
system is wrapped around the impregnated tube and welded together to make the
10 outer layer of the tube. From former East German Patent DD 255 579, a method
and an apparatus for lining and wrapping pipelines and for lining conduits is
known, in which by helical winding of a strip in a ring of rolls to a pipe, in which
edges of the strip overlap and intermesh such that lengthwise slip is possiblc, this
slip enabling the pipe to be held against the pipeline wall at the desired diameter
15 during installation, wherein a winding force to produce the intermeshing edges is
brought to bear so that the diameter of the pipe can be varied such that it presses
against the wall of the pipeline.
From the European patent application EP 236 274, an apparatus for repairing
pipes is known, provided with a carriage that is guided by two sets of sprung roll-
20 ers coaxially to the axis of the pipe to be repaired. On its front end, the carriagehas a connection for a delivery tube for the liquid coating material to be applied to
the inside wall of the pipe, and on its rear end it has a distributor device for the
coating material. The connection communicates via a connecting line with an out-let opening on the underside of the carriage. To improve a sewer pipe, the known25 apparatus - once the pipe has first been cleaned and then dried with hot air - is
introduced into the pipe through a shaft. From a second shaft located on the op-posite end of the pipe to be renovated, a tension cable is pulled through the pipe
and coupled to the known apparatus. In addition, a tube for the coating material is
drawn in and joined to the aforementioned connection of the apparatus. After that,
30 the carriage is drawn slowly along the tube through the pipe, while at the same
2 1 63673
time coating material is delivered via the tube and applied via openings to the un-
derside of the pipe to be renovated. By means of the distributor device, which is
driven by a motor, the coating material is distributed uniformly over the inner wall
of the pipe from its lower end. A following smoothing cone of the known appara-
5 tus smoothes out any unevenness that might still be present.
To avoid the disadvantages of the methods discussed above, it is therefore the
object of the invention to create a method and an apparatus for renovating pipe- lines which assure an especially simple and therefore economical mode of
operation.
10 According to the invention, this object is attained by a method for lining, in par-
ticular renovating, a pipeline, using a film or cloth material and a curable medium,
wherein film or cloth stripes are used as film or cloth material, alt least one of the
film or cloth stripes are brought into the pipeline, for the production of the lining
covering the area of the pipeline to be lined at least one length of the film or cloth
15 stripe is positioned in radial and/or axial direction on the inner surface of the pipe-
line, whereby the positioning is achieved by directly and continuously bringing the
at least one film or cloth stripe to the inner surface of the pipeline and feeding
that film or cloth stripes continuously directly to the inner wall of the pipeline and
successively applying that film or cloth stripes to the inner wall of the pipe line,
20 and that the intemal lining thus produced on-site.
To carry out the method, an apparatus for lining, in particular renovating, a pipe-
line, which has a magazine device for receiving and storing several courses of
the film or cloth material; a production device for producing the internal lining
from the film or cloth material received in the magazine device, the production de-
25 vice being functionally connected with the magazine device, whereby at least oneof the courses stored in the magazine device is feedable to the production de-
vice, and whereby for an on-site production of the internal lining covering the
area of the pipeline to be lined at least one course of the film or cloth stripes is
2 1 63673
capable of being applied in radial and/or axial direction continuously to the inner
wall of the pipeline; a transport device for moving the apparatus in the longitudi-
nal direction of the pipeline to be lined; and a curing device for curing the curable
medium impregnating the film or cloth strips.
5 The method and apparatus according to the invention make it possible in an es-pecially simple way to produce an intemal lining, directly on site, for a pipeline to
be renovated. It is thererore advantageously no longer necess~ry for the inner lin-
ing for the pipeline to be lined and in particular to be renovated to be prefabri-
cated in a complicated way even before it is introduced. The method according to10 the invention and the apparatus according to the invention preferentially used for
it instead advanlageously make it possi'~le to carry on mobile production of a tube
functioning as an intemal lining inside a pipeline. This procedure not only en-
ables a drastic reduction in the production cost of such an intemal lining and
hence of the renovation costs co",pared with the known method, but the method
15 of the invention advantageously makes it possible to selectively treat only certain
points of the pipeline, so that it is no longer necessary to renovate an entire sec-
tion of the pipeline. The savings in terms of film or fabric material achieved by this
selective employment of the method of the invention also bring about a further
marked reduction in the renovation costs.
20 Further advantageous features of the invention are recited in the dependent
claims.
Further details of the invention can be leamed from the two exemplary embodi-
ments that are described below in conjunction with the drawings. Shown are:
Figs. 1 a and 1 b, a first exemplary embodiment;
5 Fig. 2 a cross section through the first exemplary embodiment along the
line ll-ll of Fig. 1;
_ 2 1 63673
- 8 -
Fig. 3 a second exemplary embodiment;
Fig. 4 a plan view on the second exemplary embodiment from the direction
IV of Fig. 3;
Fig. 5 a cross section through the second exemplary embodiment along
the line V-V of Fig. 3.
In the ensuing description of the first exemplary embodiment, shown in Figs. 1a,1b and 2, of an apparatus generally identified by reference numeral 1 for liningpipelines, the mechanical-constructional design of this apparatus 1 will be de-
scribed first; at this point, its mode of operation will be addressed only to the ex-
10 tent necessary for comprehension of the special details of construction. Next, themethod for lining the pipelines - which is especially suitable for renovating them -
will be described in terms of the mode of operation of the apparatus 1.
In Figs. 1a and 1b, a vertical section is shown through the apparatus 1, inserted
into an only schematically shown pipeline 2.
15 Fig. la shows the part 1a of the apparatus 1 that serves to actually produce the
internal lining, while conversely Fig. 1 b essentially shows a tank device 70 of the
apparatus 1, which serves to hold a curable medium, in particular a spraying me-dium, and which can be connected to the part 1a via a fast-action coupling 72
with two coupling members 72a, 72b in the pipeline 2.
20 This apparatus 1 is composed essentially of a magazine device 10 for holding
film or cloth material serving to line the pipeline 2, a production device 20 for
forming an internal lining that seals off the defective point of the pipeline 2 to be
renovated, a transport device 30 that moves the apparatus 1 along the pipeline 2,
a monitor device 40 that has video cameras 41 and 42, a drive and aeration
21 63S73
device 50, a curing device 60, and the tank device 70. Advantageously - and as
already noted - the tank device 70, which has a resin tank 71, communicates withthe part 1a of the apparatus 1 proceeding it in the production direction via thefast-action coupling 72, which is known per se and therefore not shown in detail,
5 so that the apparatus 1 can be introduced especially simply into the pipeline 2,
even through a narrow shaft: The fast-action coupling 72, 72a, 72b in fact makesit possible for the part 1a of the apparatus 1, comprising the above-named de-
vices 10~0, on the one hand and the tank device 70, on the other, to be intro-
duced separately into the pipeline 2 and then coupled with the fast-action
10 coupling 72. This makes for an especially short effective structural length of the
apparatus 1 described.
The magazine device 10 serving to hold the cloth or film material has - in the ex-
emplary embodiment shown here - a spool unit 10' that holds three rolls 11 a-11 c
of cloth or film. The spool wall 10a' of the spool unit 10' on the right in Fig. 1 is
15 connected in a manner fixed against relative rotation to a radially extendingflange 51' of a pivot shaft 51 of the drive device 50 of the appa~alus 1. The rolls
11a-11c of the spool unit 10', embodied as a spool magazine, are driven by a
drive unit 12 received in the interior of the spool magazine 10'. The individual film
or cloth rolls 13a-13c of the magazine device 10 are connected here in such a
20 way that first the film or cloth strip 13a received in the roll 11a (that is, the strip in
the first roll in the production device 20) is wound up; then the end of this film or
cloth strip 13a is joined to the beginning of the film or cloth strip 13b received on
the roll 11b, and so forth. With this "series connection" of film or cloth strips
13a-13c of the rolls 11a-11c of the magazine device 10, it is advantageously pos-
25 sible to accommodate an adequately large quantity of film or cloth material - pref-
erably glass-fiber cloth (also suitable for potable water lines), perlon, plastic films
of all types, or linen or natural cloth - in a small space, thus guaranteeing a com-
pact kind of structure for the apparatus 1.
21 63673
- 1 0 -
To assure rapid replacement of used rolls 11 a-11 c of the magazine device 10, it
is provided that the left spool wall 10b', in Fig. 1, of the spool magazine 10' if
formed by a flange 31' of a fastening tube 31, disposed upstream of the magazinedevice 10, for the front support rolls 32 of a front transport unit 30a of the trans-
5 port device 30; by means of a fast-action coupling 34, this tube 31 is secured on
a further tube 33 protruding into the interior of the spool magazine 10'. The fur-
ther tube 33, receiving the video camera 41, of the l,anspo,( device 30 is sup-
ported in the cylindrical part 10c' of the spool magazine 10' by means of bearing
points 34a-34d.
10 The embodiment of the magazine device 10 described above is not the only one
possible; a number of different versions are certainly conceivable. As examples, it
might be mentioned here merely that a unitary roll unit formed of the rolls 11 a-11 c
- and containing the film or cloth strips 13a-13c already in the form connected as
above - can be slipped in one operation onto the cylindrical part 10'c of the spool
15 magæine 10', or that the spool magazine 10' may be replaceable in its entirety, in
which case it is detachably connected to the flange 51' of the pivot tube 51. Itshould also be noted at this point below, the term "cloth strip" will be used for
short, instead of the full term "film or cloth strip".
The production device 20 is disposed on the flange 51' of the pivot tube 51, on
20 the side opposite the magazine device 10, and - as best seen from Fig. 2 - essen-
tially includes a contact roller 21 and a drive roller 22 for advancing the cloth strip
13 formed of the cloth strip 13a-13d; a preinjection nozle unit 23; a post-injection
nozle unit 24; and a cutting unit 25. As will be described in further detail below,
the production device 20 serves to produce the intemal lining of the pipeline 2 to
25 be renovated. The drive roller 22 of the production device 20 is driven by a
toothed belt 26 (see Fig.1) that cooperates with the pivot tube 51.
The production device 20 is followed by a rear transport unit 30b of the transport
device 30, which essentially inch~des a rear sprocket wheel unit 36 for the
21 63673
apparatus 1 and a bearing housing 35, which has four bearing points 35a-35d, forthe pivot shaft 51 of the drive device 50. The rear transport unit 30b has two link
chains 37, driven each by one drive wheel 36a by the drive motor 52 of the drivedevice 50 and running over a further wheel 36b; like the support rollers 32 of the
5 front transport unit 30a of the transport device 30, these chains are disposedslightly obliquely to the vertical, to achieve self-centering of the apparatus 1 in the
pipeline 2.1t should be noted here that for the sake of simplicity in Fig. 1, the rear
transport unit 30b has been rotated into the plane of the drawing.
The drive and aeration device 50 that follows the transport device 30 has the
10 drive motor 52, shown only schematically in Fig. 1, for driving the transport device
30 and the pivot shaft 51, and also has a ventilator unit 54 - against shown only
schematically in Fig. 1 - through which air or gas can be conducted into an aera-
tion shaft 55 leading toward the production device 20. The drive motor 52 and the
ventilator unit 54 are components known per se, so that detailed description of
15 these components of the apparatus 1 at this point can be omitted.
The apparatus 1 also has a curing device 60 for the UV-radiation-curable resin
held in the resin tank 71, the tank device 70 and carried to the preinjection and
post-injection nozles units 23 and 24 of the production device 20 via a corre-
sponding line 27, which is shown only schematically in Figs. 1a, 1b and 2. In the
20 exemplary embodiment shown in Fig. 1, the curing device 60 comprises four UV
radiators distributed along the circumference of the pipeline 2; only one of them is
shown in Fig. 1, namely a UV radiator 61. The other three W radiators of the cur-
ing device 60 are f~ierosed in the circu",rerential direction of the pipeline 2, pref-
erably staggered at 90 intervals, so that it is assured that the entire
25 circumferential region of the pipeline 2 to be renovated is radiation-curable by the
UV radialors 61.
The tank device 70 already mentioned at the outset has in addition to the resin
tank 71 a high-pressure pump 73, by means of which the resin contained in the
- 21 63673
- 12 -
resin tank 71, that is, the UV-radiation-curable spraying medium, can be trans-
ported via the line 27 from the resin tank 71 to the preinjection and/or the post-
injection nozle unit 23, 24 of the production device 20. The rear video camera 42
of the monitoring device 40 is disposed on the rear side 70' of the tank device 70.
5 The tank device 70 also includes a driven cable drum, not shown in Fig. 1, by
which the apparatus 1 can be connected via a cable 81 to a control panel 80, lo-cated outside the pipeline 2 to be renovated, and to a suitable voltage source 82.
The method for lining the pipeline 2, in particular for the sake of renovation, and
hence the mode of operation of the apparatus 1 are now as follows: For loading
10 the magazine device 10 with the rolls 11 a-1 1 c that hold the cross strips 1 3a-1 3c,
the fast-action coupling 34 is rclcascd, so that the fastening tube 31 along with
the front transport unit 30a can be removed from the further tube 33 of the trans-
port device 30. After the fastening tube 31 has been removed, together with the
flange 31' forming the left side wall 10b' of the spool magazine 10', the rolls
15 11a-11c can easily be inserted into the spool magazine 10' and connected to the
"series circuit" already described above. The beginning of the cloth strip 13a lo-
cated on the roll 11a is p~ssed between the contact roller 21 and the drive roller
22 of the production device 20. The spool magazine 10' is closed again by
mounting the fastening tube 31 of the transport device 30 on the further tube 3320 that protrudes into the interior of the cylindrical part 10c' of the spool magazine
10', and by locking the fast-action coupling 34. For any of the embodiments of the
magazine device 10 described above, the loading process is the equivalent of
what has just been described.
After that the resin tank 71 of the tank device 70 is filled with a suitable quantity
25 of UV-rAdi~tion curable resin. After these preparations have been made, the ap-
paratus 1 is introdl ~Ged into the pipeline 2 to be renovated, and - as has already
been mentioned abave - provision may be made so that the part 1 a and the tank
_ 21 63673
device 70 are introduced in succession into the pipeline 2 and then connected bymeans of the fast-action coupling 72 in the pipeline 2.
The apparatus 1 is now moved to the point of the pipeline 2 that is to be reno-
vated. In order to find this leaking point of the pipeJine 2, the human operator5 seated at the control panel 80 monitors the video picture, showing the inside sur-
face of the pipeline 2, that is generated by the first video camera 41 of the moni-
toring device 40, this camera preferably being equipped with a wide-angle lens,
and that is shown on the monitor of a control panel 80, and the operator controls
the transport device 30 in such a way that the production device 20 is moved to a
10 suitable distance upstream of this leaking point, as viewed in the direction of ad-
vancement of the apparatus 1. This distance will generally be dimensioned such
that the internal lining produced by the produGtion device 20 for the pipeline 2 to
be renovated overlaps the intact part of the pipeline, to assure a secure seal of
the leak of the pipeline 2.
15 Once the production device 20 has been positioned in this way, the production of
the intemal lining is begun. To that end, via control signals generated by the
control panel 80 and transmitted over the cable line 81 to the apparatus 1, the
drive motor 52 of the drive device 50 that drives the pivot shaft ~1 is activated, so
that the spool maga,ioe 10' of the ,naga~ine device 10, the magazine being
20 joined in a manne fixed against relative rotation via the radial flange 51' of the
pivot shaft 50, and the production device 20 are set into an orbiting motion about
the pivot shaft ~1. Driving the magæine device 10 and the production device 20
jointly here via the flange 51' of the pivot shaft 51 has the advantage that the rela-
tive position of the spool magazine 10' and the production device 20 remains con-
25 stant, so that the process of paying out the serially disposed cloth strips 13a-13c
from the ~ss~,i ted rolls 11a-1 1c and transporting of the cloth strip 13 formed by
the cloth strips 13a-13c from the rolls 11a-11c to the contact roller 21 and thepressing roller 22 of the produetion device 20 can be carried out especi~'ly sim-
ply. After that the UV-ray-curable resin is pumped to the preinjection nozzle unit
- 21 63673
- 14 -
23 of the production device 20 by the high-pressure pump 73 of the tank device
70, and sprayed along the circumference of the pipeline 2 via this unit, which ro-
tates with the production device 20 about the pivot shaft 51. By means of this op-
erating step, which can be selectively provided, a better connection of the
5 pipeline 2 that is to be renovated to the internal lining to be produced by the pro-
duction device 20, and hence better sealing of the pipeline 2, are advantageously
achieved.
The contact roller 22 of the production device 20 pushes the cloth strip 13 guided
between it and the pressing roller 21 forward, and this cloth strip then is pressed
10 against the inside surface of the pipeline 2 by means of the stream of UV-
radiation-curable spraying medium - that is, resin - flowing out of the post-
injection nozle unit 24. It should also be mentioned at this point that instead of
this kind of precedure, provision may also be made so that the production device20 has a radially oriented compressed air nozle, not shown in Figs. 1a, 1b and
15 2, through which the cloth strip 13 is pressed against the inside surface of the
pipeline 2, in which case the cloth strip 13 is advantAgeously simultaneously
saturated with the resin.
Applying the cloth to the pipe wall in contactless fashion as described by meansof the flow of spraying medium or by compressed air or co",pressed gas has the
20 advantage on the one hand that reliable positioning of the cloth strip 13 on the in-
ner wall of the pipe can be carried out by simple means. On the other hand, thisprocedure has the advantage that the contactless application of the cloth permits
great freedom in selecting the curable spraying medium, since there is no me-
chanical contact between the cloth strip 13 saturated with the UV-radiation-
25 curabel spraying medium.
By slowly advancing the apparatus 1 by means of the transport device 30, aspiral-shaped application of the cloth strip 13 to the inner wall of the pipeline 2 isachieved; the transport motion is reg~ ted in such a way that ade~uAte
2 1 63673
-
- 15-
overlapping of successive courses of the internal lining is assured. However, it is
also possible to embody the intemal lining in the form of rolls overlapping one an-
other, in which a suitable number of layers of the cloth strip 13 are applied to the
inner wall of the pipe with the transport device 30 stopped, and then the cloth
5 strip 13 is cut off by the cutting unit 25 of the production device 20. After that the
production device 20 is moved onward, and a further roll of the internal lining,pr~ferably overlapping the first roll of the internal lining, is produced.
After the application of the corresponding cloth strip 13 onto the inner wall of the
pipeline 2 to be renovated and the ensuing impregnation of the cloth strip 13 ap-
10 plied in a spiral or roll, by means of another single or multiple spraying of the UV-
radiation-curable resin, the thus-installed internal lining of the pipeline 2 is kept
against the inner wall of the pipeline 2 by the compressed air generated by the
ventilator 54 and flowing out of the aeration shaft 55, while the curing of the resin
is done in a manner known per se by the UV radiators 61 of the curing device 60.
15 The second video camera 42 of the monitoring device 40, which is mounted at
the back of the apparatus 1 and is prererably equipped with a wide-angle lens,
then advantageously enables easy quality control of the intemal lining producer~
Once the length of pipe to be renovated has been treated as described above,
the apparatus 1 is moved back to its starting point by the transport device 30 and
20 can then be removed simply from the pipeline 2.
For one skilled in the art it will be clear from the above description that the basic
variant of the method described can be modified in manifold ways. For instance, it
is conceivable to introduce film or cloth strips 13a-13c into the pipeline 2 that
have already been preimpreganted with the curable medium. In that case - if the
25 aforementioned step of spraying the inner wall of the pipeline 2 prior to the appli-
cation of the film or cloth strips 13a-13d is dispensed with - the tank device 70
can be omitted without replacement. The requisite modifications to the apparatus
- 2 1 63673
- 16-
1 in that case - such as shifting the position of the second video camera 42 and of
the cable drum to the part 1 a of the apparatus 1 - will then be readily apparent to
one skilled in the art.
It is equally possiblo, by dispensing with the tank device 70, to deliver the curable
5 medium from extemally, via a line not shown in the drawings.
The second exemplary embodiment, shown in Fig. 3-5, of an apparatus, generally
identified by reference numeral 100, for renovating a pipeline 2 is sllhst~ntially
equivalent to the apparatus 1 shown in Figs. 1a, 1b and 2, so that elements thatcorrespond to one another are provided with the same re~erence numerals.
10 Accordingly, the apparatus 100 of the second exemplary embodiment is shown in Figs. 3-5 only in schematic and abstract form, since the mechanical-
constructional embodiment of the individual components has already been explic-
itly described in the first exemplary embodiment, or else will be immedi~tely ap-
parent to one skilled in the art without further thought from the functional
15 differences between the two apparatuses 1 and 100.
The essential dirrerence in the mode of operation of the apparatus 100 and hencein how the method for lining, particularly for the sake of renovation, of a pipeline 2
is carried out is that in the second exemplary embodiment, four cloth strips
113a-1 13d, corresponding to the cloth strips 1 3a-1 3d, are laid in the axial direc-
20 tion of the pipeline 2, rather than in the radial direction as in the first exemplaryembodiment. To that end it is provided that a magazine device 110 of the second
exemplary embodiment, corresponding to the magazine device 10, has four rolls
111a-111d that receives the cloth strips 113a-113d. As can best be seen from
Fig. 5, the cloth strip 113a received on the first roll 111a serves to line the sector
25 marked L1 of the inner wall of the pipeline 2. Correspondingly, the cloth strips
113b and 113c and 113d serve to line the upper right, upper left and lower left
quadrants, respe~tively, of the parts L2-L4 of the pipeline 2 shown in Fig. 5.
21 63673
- 17-
However, instead of the four cloth strips 113a-113d that in their entirety cover the
circumference of the pipeline 2 to be renovated, it is also possible that only two
cloth strips of double width, or any other arbitrary subdivision, may be used. lt is
moreover also possible for only a part of the circumrel-ence of the pipeline 2 to be
5 covered with at least one cloth strip.
In order to assure easy delivery of the cloth strips 113a-113d, the rolls 111 a-111 d
of the magazine device 110 are each disposed offset from the vertical by 45.
Each roll 111a-111d has its own drive unit 112a-112d, whose driving speed is
correlated with the advancement speed of the transport device 30 of the appara-
10 tus 100.
The second exemplary embodiment also differs from the apparatus 1 in that norotating pivot shaft 51 is provided. Instead, each of the four cloth strips
113a-113d is assigned its own production device 20.
It is of special advantage if each of the receiving units 11a-11c has an bolt-
15 shaped element carrying the film or cloth strips, and that successive bolt-shaped
elements are slideable into one another.
In summary, it can be stated that the method described and the ~ssoci^ted appa-
ratus are suitable not merely for renovating circular pipelines. Instead, by means
of simple modifications that are within the competence of any one skilled in the20 art, it can be attained that with the apparatus described, pipeline of virtually an ar-
bitrary cross section can be treated. Moreover, the use of a UV-radiation-curable
medium, in particular a spraying medium (resin), is not obligatory. For instance, it
is also possible to use ir,r,ared-curable spraying medium. Moreover, a number ofvariations of the method and of the apparalus 1, 100 may be made without de-
25 parting from the basic concept of the method and of the apparatus as described.The only essential factor is that the modified method and the apparatus corre-lated with it enable the production of an internal lining on site, and provision must
- 21 63673
- 1 8 -
be made that the film and cloth material be processed "in line", directly at thepoint in the pipeline 2 that is to be lined or renovated, to make the internal lining
that covers or seals off this point.
