EP0006823B1 - Barge equipped with a device for collecting floating matter - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to barges carrying a device for recovering floating materials and in particular floating pollution, in which said device has a slightly submerged mouth, framed by two articulated oblong elements which laterally delimit its field of action and followed by an elevator for transporting and discharging said materials into a settling and storage tank carried by the barge.

Such barges are known, in particular for patents FR-A-2 157 239 and US-A-4 033 869, and there is also known a floating point recovery device (FR-A-2 217 483) comprising arms articulated sides. In these prior devices, the elements, framing the mouthpiece of the device, have their divergent free ends and are articulated only to be folded laterally (FR-A-2 157 239, FR-A-2 217 483) or towards top (US-A-4,033,869) when the device is not in operation. Their function is to trap the portion of the floating layer which it is proposed to treat, between two solid walls - (FR-A-2 157 239 and FR-A-2 217 483) or "liquids" (US- A-4033869).

To obtain the best performance from the recovery device, all other things being equal, it is necessary, on the one hand, to create a relative displacement of the layer of floating materials towards the mouth of the device and, on the other hand , substantially maintain the immersion depth of this mouth in the vicinity of an optimal value determined, most often, empirically. In the aforementioned prior devices, the relative displacement of materials - mouth is obtained by advancing the barge (FR-A-2 157 239, US-A-4033869) or by the suction effect of the device itself (FR-A-2 217 483), with the optional addition of a thrust of the floating layer by water jets (US-A-4 033 869, FR-A-2 217 483). This is insufficient because the displacement of the barge itself, or of the device, tends to push the floating layer out of the reach of the recovery device.

The invention obviates this drawback and its first object is to provide that each of the two articulated elements respectively on either side of the mouth of the recovery device is a long floating blade, articulated around a fixed point or at least three orthogonal axes and carrying at an appropriate distance from this articulation an operating arm directed upwards and forming with the blade an obtuse angle so that it can be grasped, by its end forming a handle, by an operator on board the barge, and that the two blades can be separated from one another in a position where they do not touch the layer of floating materials and then be brought together in a vertical position until their free ends come to meet , said blades being partly immersed in the layer of floating materials during this approaching movement.

It is advantageous, to increase the "sweeping" effect of the floating layer towards the mouth, to have, along each of the blades, a plurality of nozzles supplied by a pipe of pressurized water and each providing a directed jet substantially towards said mouth. The pressurized water can come, for example, from a pump which draws water from the environment in which the barge floats.

It is obviously possible to imagine a mechanical operation of the blades from a motor means, however such an arrangement is of little use since the recovery conditions impose only an intermittent "flapping" of the blades and that, from more, this movement must be executed slowly.

Stabilization of the immersion depth of the mouth is achieved by taking as a settling tank a so-called submerged tank at substantially constant level.

We start by filling the tank with water to the highest level compatible with the draft to be observed for the barge, then we adjust the position of the recovery device so that the depth of immersion of the mouth be optimal. It then suffices to evacuate from the settling tank quantities of water corresponding by weight to the quantities of material discharged into said container. This evacuation can be adjusted by means of a drain arranged in the tank, on the bottom of the barge, and the shutter controlled by a manually operated flywheel is opened according to the flow rate of the recovery device, the degree of opening can be corrected intermittently. Compensation can be perfect thanks to a continuous overflow evacuation via a pipe starting from the bottom of the tank and opening to the outside of the barge through an orifice located in the plane of the initial water level of the tank. This initial level being variable, as it is said above since it depends on the draft to be respected, it is necessary to be able to adjust the level of the discharge orifice of the overflow pipe; this adjustment can be achieved by constituting the ascending part of said pipe by telescopic elements or by providing a flexible pipe over at least part of its length.

• la figure 1 est une vue schématique en plan d'une barge équipée d'un dispositif de "balayage",
• la figure 2, à plus grande échelle, montre en perspective le détail de l'articulation d'une pale de balayage,
• la figure 3, à plus grande échelle encore, montre le principe de basculement de la pale lorsqu'il s'agit de l'écarter de l'axe longitudinal de la barge,
• la figure 4 est une vue schématique, en élévation, d'une barge portant une cuve de décantation noyée, à niveau constant, avec évacuation à réglage manuel,

The invention will be better understood on reading of the description which will follow and on examination of the appended drawing in which:

• FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a barge equipped with a "sweeping" device,
• FIG. 2, on a larger scale, shows in perspective the detail of the articulation of a scanning blade,
• FIG. 3, on a still larger scale, shows the principle of tilting of the blade when it is a question of moving it away from the longitudinal axis of the barge,
• FIG. 4 is a schematic view, in elevation, of a barge carrying a submerged settling tank, at constant level, with evacuation with manual adjustment,

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the barge of FIG. 4,

FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C and 6D are simplified longitudinal sections of the barge of FIG. 4 in the position respectively of empty navigation at the start of work (tank filled with water), during recovery work and at the end of job.

Figure 7 is a schematic cross section of a submerged tank barge with automatic overflow compensation.

In FIGS. 1 to 3, a barge 1 carries an apparatus 2 for recovering floating materials and a tank 3 for settling and storage for said materials which are poured therein by the elevator of the apparatus 2.

It is clear that the recovery will be faster if one creates a current tending to direct the layer of floating matter towards the opening 2a of the unit 2. For this purpose, the barge is provided with two blades 4a, _4b articulated respectively on either side of the mouth 2a on the hull of the barge or on the recovery device 2 as is the case in the example shown. The articulation of each of the blades can be carried out around a fixed point (ball joint), but certain rotations must be limited by stops and it is then preferable to provide, as shown (figure 2), an articulation around three orthogonal axes 5, 10 and 11, one of which, 5, is substantially vertical. Axis 5 is the scanning axis, axis 10 is the lifting axis and axis 11 is the tilting axis.

At a suitable distance from its articulation, each blade carries an operating arm 9 directed obliquely upward so that its end 9a forming a handle can be grasped by an operator on board the barge.

The blades 4a and _4b are spaced apart from each other as shown in solid lines in Figure 1 (position I) and each blade having its cross section vertically (i position of Figure 3), to turn the towards each other according to the arrows f ₁ , around the axes 5, acting on the arms 9 until their free ends meet in the median plane of the barge in position III, after having passed through the intermediate position It. This sweeping movement of the surface of the body of water tends to bring the floating materials in the axis of the barge. At the same time these materials are pushed into the mouth 2a through 7 jets of water from nozzles 8 carried by the blades 4a, _4b, the jets 7 preferably being flattened in a horizontal plane and directed, according to the arrows f ₂ , substantially in the direction of said mouth 2 _a . Each blade may have a nozzle 8, as the blade 4a in Figure 1, or a plurality of nozzles 8, as the blade 4 _b. All the nozzles are supplied by a flexible pipe with pressurized water, thanks to a pump drawing the water on which the barge floats.

Each blade carries at its free end, on the face facing outwards, a float 16 (FIG. 2) which "follows" the surface movements of the water body (the blade playing around the axis 10) and in at the same time creates a torque which, in FIG. 2, tends to rotate the blade 4a around the axis 11 in the direct direction, thus applying the blade against a stop 17 in the vertical position shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

When the sweeping movement is finished (position III, figure 1), you must return to position I to start again. To avoid spreading the floating material backwards during this return movement, the blades must be "taken out" of the water. The lifting of a blade around its axis 10, by pulling on a lifting cable 12 is a relatively long operation, further necessitating the retraction of the arm 9 and the stopping of the jets 7 and such an operation is performed for the navigation of the barge but not during work. To remove a blade from the water during work, it is "tilted" around the axis 11. Such an operation is shown in FIG. 3, the blade 4a passing from position I to the position IV (in broken lines). To carry out this maneuver, it suffices to pull on the cable 14 stretched to be the end of a lever 15 and the end of an arm 13 rigidly fixed at right angles to the inner face of the blade in question. This traction is obtained by rotating the lever 15, which constitutes a simple and rapid maneuver. The tilting must be sufficient so that the blade does not touch the layer 18 of floating materials. When the blades are both "tilted", they are moved apart from one another, then by returning the lever 15 to its initial position, the blades resume their vertical position in abutment against the stops 17 and we thus return to position I in FIG. 1 for a new scan.

As mentioned above, the efficiency of the device 2 also depends on the depth of immersion of the mouthpiece 2 _a . When the optimal immersion depth is known, it is important to adjust the position of the device accordingly and to avoid variations in the draft of the barge to maintain this substantially constant immersion.

Stabilization of the draft of the barge is obtained thanks to the arrangements shown in Figures 4 and 7.

In these figures, there is a barge 1 carrying a device 2 for recovering floating materials and a tank 3 for settling and storage. In Figures 4 and 5 is further shown the motor 20 for propelling the barge. As above, the floating materials collected by the mouth 2a of the device 2 are transported by the elevator of said device and then poured into the tank 3, here by means of a chute 21.

The tank 3 is a so-called submerged tank, that is to say filled with water at the start of work and this water is removed as the water + floating materials mixture from the device 2 is poured out.

So that the draft H of the barge does not vary there must be compensation in weight between the products discharged by the chute 21 and the water discharged from the tank. The density of the floating materials being most often relatively close to that of water, the tank 3 can be described as a submerged tank at constant level when this compensation is obtained, but this is not perfectly exact. The adjustment of the water evacuation can be done manually, for example using a handwheel 22 actuating a flat shutter 23 placed at the bottom of the tank on an outlet orifice 24.

The different filling phases of the tank 3 are shown in Figures 6A to 6D. In 6A, the barge is in the empty navigation position, the draft h is weak and the tank 3 contains little water whose entry is possibly due to an imperfect sealing of the shutter 23 (maximum height of the water in the tank: h).

Arrived at the workplace, FIG. 6B, the tank is filled with water until the suitable draft H is obtained and the immersion of the mouth 2a of the recovery device is adjusted. The shutter 23 is always closed.

In FIG. 6C, the work of recovery of the floating materials 26 is started. The shutter 23 is open so as to partially release the orifice 24 so that the water from the tank flows with a flow rate corresponding to that of the arrival of the water + materials mixture. The opening is adjusted by trial and error and must be corrected intermittently to maintain the H value of the draft.

In FIG. 6D, the tank 3 is substantially filled with the materials recovered. The operator is informed of this by means of a dip tube 25, the upper end of which exceeds the maximum filling level of the tank and the lower end of which opens near the bottom of the tank. When the recovered materials reach the level of the lower end of the tube, it passes through the latter and we see them appear on the surface at 27 and the operator then closes the shutter 23.

Instead of having a manual adjustment by the shutter 23, an automatic compensation can be provided by means of an overflow tube 28, as shown in FIG. 7, plunging to the vicinity of the bottom of the tank 3 and bent at right angles to its upper part to open onto one of the lateral sides of the barge. An exact weight compensation is thus obtained at all times between the water discharged through the orifice 29a of the overflow and the recovered materials 26 poured into the tank. This compensation being done by weight, the level reached in the tank by the materials 26 is slightly higher than the level of the water in the overflow tube, this latter level being the initial level of the water in the tank before the start of recovery work. As has been said above, this initial water level depends on the draft H to be respected and it can therefore vary although in fairly small proportions. In FIG. 7, so that the level of the overflow orifice can be adjusted as a function of said initial level, the bent part 29 of the overflow is fitted telescopically and with gentle friction on the vertical part 28 and a link 30 or any other means of retaining or blocking makes it possible to maintain it in the chosen position. Instead of providing a felescopic part 29, for the overflow tube, a flexible part can be provided, which also makes it possible to vary the level of the discharge orifice.

Claims (7)

1. A barge supporting a device (2) for recovering floating matter (26) and, in particular, floating pollution matter, with the said device having a slightly submerged mouthpiece (2a) enclosed by two hinged oblong units which mark the boundaries of the field of action of the same sideways and followed by an elevator to transport and empty the said matter into a settling and storage tank (3) carried by the barge (1) characterised in that each of the two units which are hinged on either side of the mouthpiece (2a) of the recovery device (2) respectively is a long floating blade (4a, 4b) which is hinged around a fixed point or at least around three orthogonal axes (5, 10 and 11) and supporting at a suitable difference from the hinge in question, a manoeuvring arm (9) which is pointed upwards and which forms with the blade an obtuse angle so as to be able to be gripped at its end which forms a handle (9a) by an operator located on the barge (1), and in the two blades (4a, 4b) being able to be separated from one another in a position in which they are not touching the layer (18) of floating matter (26) and then brought together in a vertical position until their free ends meet, with the said blades being partly submerged in the layer (18) of floating matter (26) during this movement of coming together.

2. A barge as in claim 1, characterised in that each of the blades (4a, 4b) supports at least one nozzle (8) which is fed by water under pressure to produce a jet (7) which is flattened out in the horizontal plane and directed essentially towards the mouthpiece (2a) of the recovery device (2).

3. A barge as in claims 1 or 2, characterised in that the settling tank (3) is a so-called sunken tank with a level which is essentially constant.

4. A barge as in claim 3, characterised in that the plunger pipe (27) is arranged in the tank, with the upper end of the said pipe being above the maximum filling level of the trank and the lower end debouching a few metres from the bottom of the tank so as to visualise the moment when the matter is recovered almost reaches the bottom of the tank by its appearing on the surface inside the pipe.

5. A barge as in claim 4, characterised in that the water is removed from the tank (3), as the recovered matter is being poured in, by means of a drainage hole (24) which is fitted into the tank on the bottom of the barge and provided with a shutter (23), the opening of which is controlled and adjusted by a handwheel (22) which is operated manually.

6. A barge as in claim 4, characterised in that the water is removed from the tank (3) as the recovered matter is being poured in, by means of an overflow pipework system (24) which starts from the bottom of the tank and debouches outside the barge via an opening situated in the plane of the initial water level of the tank.

7. A barge as in claim 6, characterised in that the overflow pipework, consists, for at least part of its length, of flexible or telescopic units so as to adjust the level of its removal opening (29a) in relation to the initial water level in the tank.

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