Extendable pipe crawler
- North Augusta, SC
A pipe crawler having a front leg assembly and a back leg assembly connected together by two air cylinders, each leg assembly having four extendable legs and a pair of actuators for sliding the extendable legs radially outward to increase the range of the legs when the pipe crawler enters a section of a pipe having a larger diameter. The crawler crawls by "inchworm"-like motion, the front leg assembly and back leg assembly alternately engaging and disengaging the wall of the pipe to hold the pipe crawler as the air cylinders alternately advance the front leg assembly and bring up the rear leg assembly. The pair of actuators of each leg assembly are parallel, adjacent and opposing acting so that each slides two adjacent extendable legs radially outward.
- Research Organization:
- E I DUPONT DE NEMOURS & CO INC
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC09-76SR00001
- Assignee:
- United States of America as represented by United States (Washington, DC)
- Patent Number(s):
- US 5018451
- OSTI ID:
- 867832
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Pipe crawler with extendable legs
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/104/
acting
actuators
adjacent
advance
air
air cylinder
air cylinders
alternately
assembly
assembly connected
bring
connected
crawler
crawls
cylinders
diameter
disengaging
engaging
enters
extendable
extendable legs
front
front leg
hold
inchworm
increase
larger
larger diameter
leg
leg assembly
legs
motion
opposing
outward
pair
parallel
pipe
pipe crawler
radially
radially outward
range
rear
rear leg
section
slides
sliding
wall