US3032082A - Loading and discharging installation for oil-tankers - Google Patents

Description

y 1, 1952 c. VlLAlN 3,032,082

LOADING AND DISCHARGING INSTALLATION FOR OIL-TANKERS Filed Jan. 15, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 y 1, 1962 c. VILAIN 3,032,082

LOADING AND DISCHARGING INSTALLATION FOR OIL-TANKERS Filed Jan. 15, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 2/ 37 Ja -i I 22 14 l3 5 6 tma United States Patent ()fiice 3,032,082 Patented May 1, 1962 3,032,082 LOADING AND DISCHARGING INSTALLATION FOR OIL-TANKERS Charles Vilain, Rte. de Marseille, Bouches du Rhone, Martigues, France Filed Jan. 15, 1960, Ser. No. 2,631 Claims priority, application France Oct. 14, 1959 3 Claims. (Cl. 141-388) The discharging or loading of oil-tankers is generally carried out with the aid of flexible conduits aflixed to the wharf. These conduits are subjected to a multiplicity of force-resultants as a consequence of the movements performed in the horizontal and in the vertical plane on the water by the moored vessels.

The fact is that as the discharging and loading operations proceed, the tanker either rises or falls by several metres with respect of the normal level. Furthermore, a certain amount of drift occurs, whatever the nature of the mooring, and in order to ensure that they are not wrenched away these conduits, which sometimes weigh more than a ton, must be capable of following these dis placements without the necessity for any interruption in the pumping-operation.

The object of the invention is to provide a gantry for the handling of flexible conduits for the loading and discharging of oil-tankers, enabling the conduit to be placed in position and to move in a properly balanced and compensated manner in accordance with any variations in level or in distance liable to occur in the course of the operation.

According to the present invention, a quay-side loading and discharging installation for oil-tankers comprises a gantry, said gantry including a superstructure having track means extending outwardly with respect to the quay, a carriage movable on said track means inwardly and outwardly with respect to the quay, a conduit coupled at one end to a liquid-handling installation on the quay and adapted to be coupled at its other end to the oil-tanker to be serviced, a counterweight for the conduit, and cable means connected at one end to a fixed point of the gantry, passed about first pulley means on the carriage, then about pulley means on an intermediate part of the conduit, then about second pulley means on the carriage, then about pulley means on the gantry to terminate at its other end at the counterweight, whereby movement of the carriage permits lateral movement of the intermediately supported part of the conduit.

In the accompanying drawings, which show by way of example, without any limitative eflect, one of the ways in which the device to which the invention relates can be constructed:

FIGURE 1 shows the compensating and equilibrating device for the conduit; FIG. 2 shows how the flexible conduit is handled when being placed in position.

The gantry, supporting a number of flexible conduits, (only one of which is shown) consists of uprights 1 and a superstnicture 2 with track means in the form of rails 3, and the carriage or trolley 4, bearing the pulleys 5 and 6, moves over the said rails 3.

The conduit consists of flexible sectors 7 and 8, the sector 7 being coupled to a liquid-handling installation 7:: on the quay, and connected together by a rigid pipe 9, which has pulleys 11 and 12 mounted integrally thereon. These pulleys engage a cable 13 which is aflixed at point 14 at the outer end of the superstructure. The cable 13 also passes over pulleys 5, 6 and 11, 12, and is supported by a return-pulley 14a at the inner end of the superstructure, so that the side marked 15 is connected to the compensating counterweight 16.

The cable supporting the counterweight 16 passes over the control-Windlass 17, which is disengaged after the conduit has been placed in position.

As shown in FIG. 2, there can be provided, on the top of the gantry 2, a gin 18 with a Windlass 19 which controls the cable- sectors 20 and 21, which pass over the tailsheave 22.

When the flexible conduit is in its position of rest, i.e. with the outer end thereof disengaged from a vessel and held in stowed position just beneath the rails 3, use is made of the gin 18, and the loop 20 and 21 of the cable is affixed to a pulley 22 on the same level as the manifold of the oil-tanker. The Windlass 19 is set in operation, and the conduit is drawn out to its point of connection.

Vertical guiding of the conduit is also eflected by means of the Windlass 19.

This handling-operation is facilitated by the movement of the trolley 4 and of the rigid element 9.

' Once the flexible conduit has been stabilised, the gin 18 is put out of operation, and the cable is immobilised at the fixed point 14.

At this moment, the entire installation is in equilibrium, owing to the action of the counterweight 16, and the Windlass 17 is disengaged.

The flexible conduit, raised by the trolley 4, thus fol lows the ascending or descending movement of the oiltanker 23 automatically. If the latter is being discharged the conduit will at first be in the position shown in FIG. 1; as the discharging-operation proceeds, the ship 23 rises in the water the entire system reaching the upper position as shown in FIG. 2.

These operations necessitate no labour, and render it possible, by equilibration, to bring about variations in height amounting to more than 15 metres, as well as horizontal movements likewise representing the maximum drift which may occur.

This result is achieved by the arrangement of the rigid element 9 between the two flexible elements and by the connection of the travelling pulleys 11 and 12 with the moving trolley, the latter itself being connected to the compensation counterweight, which ensures the even and balanced travel of the entire system, by simple and robust devices which cannot get out of order.

This method of positioning the conduit, as shown in FIG. 2, and automatic regulation, as shown in FIG. 1, enable oil-tankers to be loaded and unloaded without any supervision and in the minimum of time, which considerably reduces the time for which the vessels have to be immobilised and protects all the accessories and devices used for transvasation.

I claim:

1. A quay-side loading and discharging installation for oil-tankers comprising a gantry having pulley means thereon, said gantry including a superstructure having track means extending outwardly with respect to the quay, a carriage having first and second pulley means and being movable on said track means inwardly and outwardly with respect to the quay, a conduit having intermediate pulley means, coupled at one end to a liquid-handling installation on the quay and adapted to be coupled at its other end to the oil-tanker to be serviced, a counterweight for the conduit, and cable means connected at one end to a fixed point of the gantry, passed about said first pulley means on the carriage, then about said intermediate pulley means on an intermediate part of the conduit, then about said second pulley means on the carriage, then about said pulley means on the gantry to terminate at its other end at the counterweight, whereby movement of the carriage permits lateral movement of the intermediately supported part of the conduit.

2. A quay-side loading and discharging installation for oil-tankers comprising a gantry having pulley means thereon, said gantry including a superstructure having track means extending outwardly with respect to the quay, a carriage having first and second pulley means, and being movable on said track means inwardly and outwardly with respect to the quay, a conduit including a first flexible section coupled at one end to a liquid-handling installation on the quay and coupled at its other end to a rigid section, said rigid section having pulley means thereon, and a second flexible section connected at one end to said rigid section and adapted to be coupled at its other end to the oil-tanker to be serviced, a counterweight for the conduit, and cable means connected at one end to a fixed point of the gantry, passed about said first pulley means on the carriage, then about said pulley means on the rigid section of the conduit, then about said second pulley means on the carriage, then about said pulley means on the gantry to terminate at its other end at the counterweight, whereby movement of the carriage permits lateral movement of the rigid section of the conduit.

3. A quay-side loading and discharging installation for oil-tankers, comprising a gantry having first and second pulley means, said gantry including a superstructure having track means extending outwardly with respect to the quay, a carriage having first and second pulley means, and being movable on said track means inwardly and outwardly with respect to the quay, a conduit including a first flexible section coupled at one end to a liquidhandling installation on the quay and coupled at its other end to a rigid section, and a second flexible section having pulley means at the free end thereof connected at one end to said rigid section and adapted to be coupled at its other end to the oil-tanker to be serviced, a counterweight for the conduit, pulley means attachable to a fixed point on the tanker, a Windlass and a gin on the gantry, said gin having first and second pulley means thereon, and cable means connected at one end to said Windlass at a fixed point of the gantry and being passed about said first pulley means on said gin, about said pulley means attachable to a fixed point on the tanker, about said pulley means on the free end of said second flexible section of the conduit, then about said second pulley means on the gin, about said first pulley means on the gantry, about said first pulley means on the carriage, then about said pulley means on the rigid section of the conduit, about said second pulley means on the carriage, then about said second pulley means on the gantry to terminate at its other end at the counterweight, whereby movement of the carriage permits lateral movement of the rigid section of the conduit and operation of the Windlass enables the free end of the second flexible section of the conduit to be drawn to the oil-tanker for coupling thereto.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,680,831 White Aug. 14, 1928 1,911,579 McNeil May 30, 1933 2,719,653 Bledsoe Oct. 4, 5 2,790,217 Vossbrinck Oct. 11, 1955 2,914,080 Silveston Nov. 24, 1959 2,922,446 Sheiry Jan. 26, 1960

Images