Piping inspection carriage having axially displaceable sensor

Patent · Fri Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:869630

Zollinger, William T ^[1]; Treanor, Richard C ^[2]

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1. Martinez, GA
2. Augusta, GA

A pipe inspection instrument carriage for use with a pipe crawler for performing internal inspections of piping surfaces. The carriage has a front leg assembly, a rear leg assembly and a central support connecting the two assemblies and for mounting an instrument arm having inspection instruments. The instrument arm has a y-arm mounted distally thereon for axially aligning the inspection instrumentation and a mounting block, a linear actuator and axial movement arm for extending the inspection instruments radially outward to operably position the inspection instruments on the piping interior. Also, the carriage has a rotation motor and gear assembly for rotating the central support and the front leg assembly with respect to the rear leg assembly so that the inspection instruments azimuthally scan the piping interior. The instrument carriage allows performance of all piping inspection operations with a minimum of moving parts, thus decreasing the likelihood of performance failure.

• Research Organization: WESTINGHOUSE SAVANNAH RIVER CO
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-89SR18035
• Assignee: United States of America as represented by United States (Washington, DC)
• Patent Number(s): US 5370006
• OSTI ID: 869630
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/73/324/
actuator
aligning
allows
arm
assemblies
assembly
axial
axial movement
axially
axially align
azimuthally
block
carriage
central
central support
connecting
crawler
decreasing
displaceable
distally
extending
failure
front
front leg
gear
gear assembly
inspection
inspection instrument
inspections
instrument
instrument carriage
instrumentation
instruments
interior
internal
leg
leg assembly
likelihood
linear
linear actuator
minimum
motor
mounted
mounting
movement
moving
operably
operations
outward
performance
performing
pipe
pipe crawler
pipe inspection
piping
piping inspection
position
radially
radially outward
rear
rear leg
respect
rotating
rotation
scan
sensor
support
surfaces
thereon
y-arm