US3695203A

US3695203A - Submerged vessel raising apparatus

Info

Publication number: US3695203A
Application number: US94461A
Authority: US
Inventors: Jim D Helbig
Original assignee: Cyclo Manufacturing Co
Current assignee: Cyclo Manufacturing Co
Priority date: 1970-12-02
Filing date: 1970-12-02
Publication date: 1972-10-03
Anticipated expiration: 1989-10-03
Also published as: NL7107692A; DE2127140A1; CA934611A; AU2950671A; FR2095072A5; GB1321385A; ES392180A1

Abstract

Submerged vessel raising apparatus which comprises one or more tubes into which buoyant elements are loaded by suction, pressurized in batches, and when pressurized travel in the tube by gravity to a delivery conduit leading into the vessel to be raised, including pressurizing means by which the air in the tube is overpressurized to at least 20 pounds in excess of the ambient water pressure at the point of delivery of the buoyant elements into the sunken vessel.

Description

United States Patent Helbig 51 Oct. 3, 1972 [54] SUBMERGED VESSEL RAISING APPARATUS [72] Inventor: Jim D. Helbig,'Brighton, Colo.

[73] Assignee: Cyclo Manufacturing Company,

Denver, Colo.

[22] Filed: Dec. 2, 1970 [21] Appl.No.: 94,461

[52] US. Cl ..1 14/50 [51] Int. Cl ..B63c 7/12 [58] Field of Search ..l14/50, 52

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,772,709 8/1930 Culbertson ..1 14/50 Primary Elxaminen-Evon C. Blunk Assistant Examinerl. Kenneth Silverman Attorney- Bertha L. MacGregor [57] ABSTRACT Submerged vessel raising apparatus which comprises one or more tubes into which buoyant elements are loaded by suction, pressurized in batches, and when pressurized travel in the tube by gravity to a delivery conduit leading into the vessel to be raised, including pressurizing means by which the air in the tube is overpressurized to at least 20 pounds in excess of the ambient water pressure at the point of delivery of the buoyant elements into the sunken vessel.

8 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures mEN'TEDnm 3 I972 INVENTIOILI'I JIM D. HEL IQ ATTORNEY SUBMERGED VESSEL RAISING APPARATUS The invention relates to apparatus for raising vessels submerged in very deep water as well as in water of shallower depths. The apparatus employs a plurality of buoyant elements, either valved or valveless, spherical or other form, having walls impervious to air and water provided with means for automatically adjusting internal pressures relatively to external pressures to predetermined degrees.

My US. Pat. No. 3,303,808 disclose an example of valveless buoyant elements provided with very small apertures, for the purpose stated, and a pressure chamber in which the buoyant elements are pressurized and pass into a delivery conduit leading into the sunken vessel to be raised. My co-pending application, Ser. No. 8l2,l98 filed Apr. 1, 1969, now US. Pat. No. 3,602,176 dated Aug. 3|, 1971, describes valved buoyant elements for the purpose stated which automatically prevent passage of air or water in either direction until a predetermined pressure differential exists between the interior and exterior of the elements, and permit passage of air or water only when a predetermined pressure differential between pressures internal and external of the elements has been reached. Such buoyant elements, valved or valveless, have been accumulated in a hopper type pressure chamber and delivered to a sunken vessel through a conduit communicating with the bottom of the chamber.

. Difficulties have been encountered due to the jamming of the buoyant elements in the pressure chamber, particularly adjacent the entrance to the delivery conduit, obstructing the free flow of buoyant elements into the conduit. One of the objects of this invention is to provide means for quick, continuous, unobstructed passage of pressurized buoyant elements into and through a delivery conduit which conveys them into a sunken vessel.

q er 1329! 9?.1h9i9x92ti9r is t BFSPYIQQ erparatus including a tube-form pressurizing chamber in which buoyant elements are pressurized and conveyed to a delivery conduit without obstruction or hindrance due to accumulation of buoyant elements during passage of the pressurized buoyant elements through the pressurizing chamber and conduit to the sunken vessel.

The buoyant elements employed in this apparatus are light weight, thin walled plastic spheres which are automatically pressurized to any depth to which they are to be delivered, thereby preventing crushing as the spheres descend, and are automatically depressurized as they rise to the surface with the sunken vessel, thus preventing explosion. Preferably the spheres are ll inches outside diameter with a five thirty-seconds inch wall thickness, made of high density polyetheline with a net lifting force of 25 pounds. Each sphere weighs 2 pounds.

My aforementioned co-pending application discloses the employment of valved buoyant elements having a minimum of pounds differential internal pressure to prevent pressure variations from tide or wave action working small quantities of water into the buoyant elements. The pressure chamber must be pressurized to the ambient water pressure, at the depth to which the elements are to be delivered, plus approximately psi. The overpressurizing is needed to overcome the built-in differential of the valve and to reduce pressurizing time by maintaining an even pressurizing rate as the internal pressure of the spheres approaches the predetermined increased pressure. Therefore, another object of this invention is to provide means for overpressurizing buoyant elements before conveying them to a delivery conduit.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of apparatus embodying my invention.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view showing the apparatus of FIG. 1 on a surface craft, and the buoyant element delivery conduit leading into a submerged vessel.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, 10 designates a surface craft, 11 a sunken vessel or other object to be raised, 12 a plurality of buoyant elements and 13 a delivery conduit between the craft l0 and submerged vessel 11.

Referring to FIG. 1, an intake conduit 15 of light weight material receives buoyant elements 12 from a supply source for the purpose of conveying them through an intake manifold 16 into pressurizing

tubes

17, 18 and 19, controlled by

gate valves

20, 21, 22, respectively. Preferably, the

tubes

17, 18, 19 are each 30 feet in length, of standard 12 inch pipe, which serve as pressurizing chambers and also to convey the pressurized elements 12 to a discharge manifold. The pipes have 10 slope to the discharge end and are capable of withstanding internal pressures equal to the ambient water pressure at the point of delivery.

The buoyant elements 12 are slightly smaller in outside diameter than the internal diameter of the

tubes

17, 18, 19, and are drawn by suction into the intake manifold 16, and through

gate valves

20, 21, 22, into the pressurizing

tubes

17, 18, 19, by means of a suction blower (not shown) through suction pipe 23 and

suction gate valves

25, 26, 27, respectively. Compressed air is supplied to the pressurizing

tubes

17, 18, 19 through an air pipe 28 communicating with a compressed air supply (not shown) controlled by pressurizing

valves

30, 31, 32, respectively. After having been pressurized to approximately 20 psi. over the predetermined bottom water pressure, the pressure in the

chamber

17, 18 or 19 is reduced until the pressure in the chamber equals the pressure in the discharge manifold 40, by discharging pressurized air through the blow down pipe 33, controlled by blow down

valves

34, 35, 36, respectively. The buoyant pressurized elements 12 move by gravity from the tubes l7, 18, 19 through

gate valves

37, 38, 39, respectively, into a discharge manifold 40.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows: All valves are closed and a regulated source of air is supplied to the discharge manifold 40. The pressure in the discharge manifold is increased until it has forced all the water out of the delivery conduit 13. At this point, the air pressure in the discharge manifold 40 and delivery conduit 13 is equal to the ambient water pressure at the depth of delivery. After all water has been expelled from the delivery conduit 13, the maintained pressure is such that there will be a slight discharge of air from the lower end of the conduit 13.

The loading operation is started by opening the gate valve at the upper end of the

tubes

17, 18 or 19, all other valves being closed. Assuming that loading is to begin in the upper tube 17, the gate valve will be opened. A high volume air suction blower (not shown) is manifolded to the

tubes

17, 18, 19; in this example, to the tube 17 through suction gate valve 25. When both intake valve and suction valve are open, the high velocity air suction blower produces a vacuum conveying system by which the plastic spheres 12 can be drawn and conveyed for a distance of several hundred feet from a supply source and loaded into the pressure chambers. When the pressure chamber 17 is full, the suction valve and the intake valve for that chamber or tube are closed.

The second stage in the sequence of operations is the pressurizing of the spheres in the pressure chamber 17 which is pressurized to approximately 20 pounds higher than the ambient water pressure at point of delivery. As heretofore explained, the overpressurizing is done to overcome the differential pressure of the two way valve and to force the buoyant elements to take on air at a faster rate. During the pressurizing the spheres actually become internally pressurized to at least 5 pounds above the ambient water pressure. When the spheres 12 in tube 17 are being pressurized, the pressurizing valve is open and pressurized air is forced through pipe 28, valve 30, into tube 17.

The third stage is to discharge the pressurized elements 12 into the discharge manifold 40 through discharge gate valve 37, and from the manifold 40 to the delivery conduit 13. First the pressure chamber 17 is depressurized to equal bottom pressure by means of the blow down pipe 33 through blow down valve 34, until the pressure essentially equals that in the discharge manifold 40, and then the gate valve 37 at the lower end of the pressure chamber is opened. Due to the slope of the tubes l7, 18, 19 the spheres move by gravity out of the tubes through the discharge manifold 40 and air filled delivery conduit 13. When the pressure chamber 17 is empty, the discharge valve 37 is closed and the blow down valve 34 is opened to atmosphere, thus completing the cycle.

It will be understood, of course, from the foregoing description of operation with respect to the loading and pressurizing of buoyant elements 12 in the tube 17, by means of intake valve 20, suction valve 25, pressurizing valve 30, blow down valve 34 and discharge valve 37, that the corresponding operations are performed with respect to loading and pressurizing tube 18 by intake valve 21, suction valve 26, pressurizing valve 31, blow down valve 35 and discharge valve 38; and with respect to tube 19 by intake valve 22, suction valve 27, pressurizing valve 32, blow down valve 36 and discharge valve 39. Thus buoyant elements pressurized in tube 17 will be discharged into manifold 40 while other buoyant elements are being pressurized in tube 18, and still other elements are being loaded into tube 19. While a single pressurizing chamber or tube can accomplish the described operation, in order to increase delivery capacity, the three tube arrangement is preferred, whereby one tube is being loaded by means of the vacuum system while another tube is being pressurized and while the third tube is discharging pressurized spheres. By proper cycling with the three tube system, 50 to 70 tons of buoyancy can be delivered per hour.

I claim:

1. Submerged vessel raising apparatus comprising a. a plurality of buoyant elements which automatically prevent passage of air or water into or out of said elements until a predetermined pressure differential exists between the interior and exterior of the elements and permit passage of air or water only when a predetermined pressure differential between pressures internal and external of the elements has been reached,

b. a plurality of surface-located tubes inclined downwardly from their intake ends to their discharge ends, each having inner diameters slightly larger than the outer diameterv of the buoyant elements,

0. an intake manifold connected to said plurality of tubes at their intake ends,

d. a discharge manifold connected to said plurality of tubes at their discharge ends,

e. means loading the buoyant elements into the intake manifold and from said intake manifold into each of said tubes,

f. valve means closing each tube at both ends when filled to provide a pressure chamber in said tube,

g. means pressurizing the pressure chamber and the buoyant elements in said tube in excess of the ambient water pressure at the depth to which the elements are to be delivered,

h. a delivery conduit in communication with the discharge manifold and the submerged vessel to be raised,

i. means increasing the air pressure in the discharge manifold until it has forced all water out of the delivery conduit,

j. means controlling the air pressure in the discharge manifold and delivery conduit to equal the water pressure at depth of delivery,

k. a blow down pipe and valve reducing the air pressure in the pressurizing chamber of the tube, after the buoyant elements therein have been over-pressurized, until the pressure in the chamber equals the pressure in the discharge manifold, and

l. valve means opening the tubes successively and allowing pressurized buoyant elements to travel into the discharge manifold.

2. The apparatus defined by claim 1, in which the plurality of tubes comprises at least three tubes, and the means pressurizing the pressure chamber in one tube is activated while another tube is receiving buoyant elements from the intake manifold and a third tube is discharging buoyant elements into the discharge manifold.

3. The apparatus defined by claim 1, in which the means pressurizing the pressure chamber in each tube pressurizes said chamber to at least 20 pounds in excess of the ambient water pressure at depth of delivery.

4. The apparatus defined by claim 1, in which the buoyant elements are valved light weight plastic spheres.

5. The apparatus defined by claim 1, in which the means loading the buoyant elements into the intake manifold and from said intake manifold into each of said tubes is suction means connected to each of said tubes near its intake end.

6. The method of raising submerged vessels which comprises the steps of loading a plurality of buoyant elements into an elongated tube inclined to a horizontal plane having an internal diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the buoyant elements, said elements having walls impervious to air and water provided with means for automatically adjusting internal pressures to external pressures to predetermined degrees, closing said tube and converting it into a pressure chamber when filled with buoyant elements, air-pressurizing the chamber and the buoyant elements therein in excess of the ambient water pressure at the depth to which the elements are to be delivered, increasing air pressure in a delivery conduit connected to said tube and leading into the submerged vessel until all water has been forced out of the conduit, controlling the air pressure in the delivery conduit to equal the water pressure at depth of delivery, reducing the air pressure in the pressurizing chamber of the tube after the buoyant elements therein have been overpressurized until the pressure equals the pressure in the delivery conduit, and opening the tube and allowing the pressurized buoyant elements to travel into the delivery conduit.

7. The method of raising submerged vessels which comprises loading a plurality of buoyant elements into an intake manifold connected to at least three elongated tubes inclined relatively to a horizontal plane and having an internal diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the buoyant elements, said elements having walls impervious to air and water provided with means for automatically adjusting internal pressures to external pressures to predetermined degrees, moving said buoyant elements from the intake manifold into said tubes, successively, closing each of said tubes and converting it into a pressure chamber when filled with buoyant elements, air-pressurizing the chamber and the buoyant elements therein in excess of the ambient water pressure at the depth to which the elements are to be delivered, increasing air pressure in a discharge manifold connected to said tubes and in a delivery conduit connected to said discharge manifold and leading into the submerged vessel until all water has been forced out of the conduit, controlling the air pressure in the discharge manifold and delivery conduit to equal the water pressure at depth of delivery, reducing the air pressure in the pressurizing chamber of the tube after the buoyant elements therein have been over-pressurized until the pressure in the chamber equals the pressure in the discharge manifold and delivery conduit, and opening the tube and allowing the pressurized buoyant elements to travel into the delivery conduit, each tube being loaded with buoyant elements while another tube and its contents are being pressurized, and while a third tube is being unloaded.

8. The method defined by claim 7 in which the buoyant elements while in the pressure chamber of a tube are over-pressurized to approximately 20 pounds in excess of the ambient water pressure at the depth to which the elements are to be delivered.

Claims

1. Submerged vessel raising apparatus comprising a. a plurality of buoyant elements which automatically prevent passage of air or water into or out of said elements until a predetermined pressure differential exists between the interior and exterior of the elements and permit passage of air or water only when a predetermined pressure differential between pressures internal and external of the elements has been reached, b. a plurality of surface-located tubes inclined downwardly from their intake ends to their discharge ends, each having inner diameters slightly larger than the outer diameter of the buoyant elements, c. an intake manifold connected to said plurality of tubes at their intake ends, d. a discharge manifold connected to said plurality of tubes at their discharge ends, e. means loading the buoyant elements into the intake manifold and from said intake manifold into each of said tubes, f. valve means closing each tube at both ends when filled to provide a pressure chamber in said tube, g. means pressurizing the pressure chamber and the buoyant elements in said tube in excess of the ambient water pressure at the depth to whIch the elements are to be delivered, h. a delivery conduit in communication with the discharge manifold and the submerged vessel to be raised, i. means increasing the air pressure in the discharge manifold until it has forced all water out of the delivery conduit, j. means controlling the air pressure in the discharge manifold and delivery conduit to equal the water pressure at depth of delivery, k. a blow down pipe and valve reducing the air pressure in the pressurizing chamber of the tube, after the buoyant elements therein have been over-pressurized, until the pressure in the chamber equals the pressure in the discharge manifold, and l. valve means opening the tubes successively and allowing pressurized buoyant elements to travel into the discharge manifold.