JPS5915450B2 - Submarine cable laying and burying machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a machine for simultaneously laying and burying submarine cables on the seabed.

Conventional submarine cable burying machines include a water-gient-type burying machine and a plow-type burying machine, which are towed by a cable laying ship.

However, in both cases, excavation was limited to relatively soft sand or clay soils, and it was nearly impossible to excavate in hard silt soils.

On the other hand, due to the recent changes in the water depth of trawling fishing and the anchoring of large ships at high water depths, cable burial areas are also being forced to have deeper water depths.

However, there was a drawback in that it was extremely difficult to tow the buried equipment with a laying ship under high water depth.

In view of the above points, the present invention provides a submarine cable laying and burying machine capable of excavating even relatively hard soil and having a self-propelled ability, and will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

Figures 1 and 2 show an embodiment of the present invention in operation, with 1 being a fuselage frame and 2 being wound between a front wheel 3 and a rear wheel 4 which are each pivotally supported on a frame 1 shaft. It is a caterpillar.

Each of the left and right rear wheels 4 is driven by a drive source 5 consisting of a hydraulic motor, and serves as a drive wheel for the caterpillar 2.

Further, a tachometer 6 is attached to the rear wheel 4 to detect the speed of the burying machine.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a groove digging machine in which a main body frame 8 is pivotally supported on a frame 1 so that the angle of inclination can be changed freely.Driving wheels 7 are pivotally supported on both ends of the main body frame 8 and are driven by a drive source 9 consisting of a hydraulic motor. 10 and a driven wheel 11, the endless belt-like body 12 has digging blades 13 provided at equal intervals on the outer periphery.
The endless strip 12 and thus the blade 13 rotate in the direction of the arrow to excavate the seabed 18 from the front upper surface downward.

Reference numeral 14 denotes a hydraulic shovel, which has one end pivotally supported on the driving wheel 10 and the other end on the frame 1 to change the angle of the groove digging machine 70 in order to change the depth of the groove; Tachometer for measuring machine 70 rotational speed, 16
is an angle sensor attached to the support shaft of the main body frame 8 to the frame 1 for detecting the inclination angle of the trench digging machine 7.

17 is a plow with a boat-shaped cross section attached to the frame 1 so that it can move up and down, as shown in a perspective view in FIG. snow,
At its rear end, the removed earth and sand naturally collapses onto the cable 21 which is placed in the trench and is backfilled.

Reference numeral 19 denotes a cable drum around which a laying cable 21 is wound, and is pivotally supported by a support body 20 that can be freely attached to and detached from the frame 1.

22 is a linear cable motor for feeding out the cable 21 from the cable drum 19, and 23 is a tachometer for detecting the cable embedding speed.

24 is a presser wheel for laying the cable 21 while holding it down to the bottom of an excavated trench, and its shaft is connected to the plow 17.
0 Supported by both side walls.

The plow 17 is configured such that its vertical position can be adjusted by a hydraulic jack (not shown) depending on the trench digging depth of the trench digging machine 7.

The operating speed of the burying machine is detected by a tachometer 6 attached to the rear wheel 4, the rotation speed and inclination angle of the groove digging machine 70 are detected by a tachometer 15 and an angle sensor 16, respectively, and the cable burying speed is detected by a tachometer 23.

A position sensor (not shown) for the plow 1T is also provided, and these output signals are sent to a ferry on the sea via a communication cable 25.

On board the ferry, the signal is sent from the ferry through the communication cable 25 and installed in the frame 1, and the control equipment section 26 controls the drive source 5 of the caterpillar 2, the drive source 9 of the trench digging machine 7, and the hydraulic pressure. The jack 14, linear cable motor 22, etc. can be controlled.

The hydraulic power sources for these devices provided in the control equipment section 26 are driven by electric power sent from the ferry via the communication cable 25.

Furthermore, the burying machine can be equipped with a gyroscope and a television camera, and can also be configured to send information about the position during work and the burial situation to the ferry boat through the communication cable 25.

The groove digging machine 7 is designed to rotate from the front side to the rear side at the bottom as shown by the arrow in the figure, so that even if hard soil containing rocks is encountered, no force is applied to the digging blade 13, and the groove is By changing the inclination angle of the excavator 7, it is possible to escape from the impossible.

As described above, since the present invention is equipped with a trench digging machine that rotates an endless belt-like body provided with a digging blade, it is possible to easily excavate even relatively hard submarine soil.
In addition, by installing a plow at the rear of the trench, the earth and sand excavated by the trench digging machine can be removed from the trench to form a complete trench for burying the cable. The cable is laid in a trench, and the soil removed at the rear of the plow 17 naturally collapses onto the cable, and the cable is immediately buried, unlike conventional laying from a laying ship at sea. Since no tension is applied to the cable, problems such as structural deformation and breakage of the cable during installation can be prevented.

Moreover, since the caterpillar is driven by a drive source so that it can run on its own, the cable can be buried even in the depths of the ocean.

From these points of view, it is effective for laying and burying lightweight and compact optical fiber submarine cables.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of the same,
FIG. 3 shows a bottom view of the same, and FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of the plow. 1... Airframe frame, 2... Caterpillar, 3... Front wheel, 4... Rear wheel, 5
... Drive source for the caterpillar, 7... Grooving machine, 9... Drive source for the trench digging machine, 12...
...Endless strip, 13...Drilling blade, 17...
... plow, 19 ... cable drum, 21 ...
····cable.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Caterpillars on both left and right sides that are wound between the front wheels and rear wheels supported by the frame on both sides of the front and rear parts of the fuselage frame and rotated by a drive source, and the left and right caterpillars that are supported by the fuselage frame and a groove digging machine having an endless band-shaped body located between the caterpillars on both sides, provided with a digging blade on the outer periphery and driven by a drive source; A seabed characterized by comprising: a plow attached to the rear of the trench digging machine to remove earth and sand excavated by the trench digging machine from the trench; and a cable drum supported on the body frame and wound with a laid cable. Cable laying and burying machine.