JPH052184B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a pipe inspection device, and in particular, the present invention relates to a pipe inspection device that runs and inspects pipes with relatively small diameters that have steps and bends, such as city gas and water pipes. This invention relates to a pipe inspection device suitable for inspection.

[Background of the invention]

Conventionally, devices that insert fiberscopes into pipes to inspect the inside have curved tips or
The adapter device has functions such as side viewing, but as the fiberscope becomes longer and passes through bent pipe joints, etc., the fiberscope twists and the vertical positional relationship of the objective lens becomes unclear. It had the disadvantage of becoming. For this reason, in buried pipes such as gas pipes and water pipes, although bends can be detected by joints, the direction of bending cannot be determined.
Even when changing the inspection piping, it was not possible to determine the necessary excavation position of the buried pipe. In addition, even if it is necessary to repair a damaged part inside the pipe during a pipe inspection, conventional fiberscopes cannot determine where on the circumference the damaged part has occurred, so the repair inside the pipe can be carried out. There was waste, such as having to carry out repair work around the entire circumference of the pipe using tools. In addition, as a device that moves inside the pipe and inspects the inside, for example, the Japanese Patent Application Publication No.
Inspection device disclosed in Publication No. 53-120589, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1973
There is a pipeline crawler shown in Japanese Patent No. 10042.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned points, and its purpose is to enable insertion even if the pipe diameter is relatively small and there is a step or bend inside the pipe, as well as to make it possible to insert the pipe in the direction of bending of the pipe. An object of the present invention is to provide a pipe inspection device capable of detecting the presence of foreign matter in a pipe and the position of damage.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention provides a fiberscope having an objective lens at its tip, a rotating pendulum that supports the objective lens of the fiberscope near its rotation center, and a rotating pendulum that houses the rotating pendulum and is provided around the fiberscope. A pipe interior inspection device equipped with a substantially spherical sensor head frame that travels inside the pipe by the pushing force of an elastic body, or a fiberscope having an objective lens at its tip;
a substantially spherical sensor head frame that supports the objective lens of the fiberscope and travels within the tube by the pushing force of an elastic body provided around the fiberscope; and a gravity direction indicator that indicates the direction of gravity to the objective lens. By making the pipe inspection device equipped with a machine, the intended purpose is achieved.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show an embodiment of the pipe interior inspection device of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the pipe interior inspection device of this embodiment is roughly divided into a fiber scope 23 having an objective lens 21 at its tip, a rotating pendulum 12 on which the objective lens 21 of the fiber scope 23 is placed, and this rotating pendulum. A spherical body smaller than the inner diameter of the tube,
Alternatively, the sensor head 10 may be configured in an egg shape. The rotating pendulum 12 is attached to the sensor head frame 11.
The objective lens 21 is fixed to the sensor head frame 11 via a bearing 13 so that it can freely rotate around the center line of the tube. It's starting to match the direction. Also,
The rotating pendulum 12 is provided with a damping device 14 to prevent it from excessively twisting or rapidly rotating due to vibrations while traveling, thereby preventing the fiberscope 23 from being twisted too much or applying a torsional impact. The sensor head frame 11 is connected to the sensor head frame 11 to prevent the rotating pendulum 12 from swinging excessively.

FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 show a state in which the pipe interior inspection device of the above-described embodiment is connected to a TV monitor to inspect the interior of the pipe.

As shown in the figure, the pipe interior inspection device allows the sensor head 10 to inspect the pipe 50 by pushing an elastic body 20 made of a tightly coiled spring or a flexible helical tube whose inner diameter is larger than the outer diameter of the fiberscope 23 from outside the pipe 50. Run inside. At the other end of the fiberscope 23, there is a
An ITV camera 30 is connected, and the ITV camera 30 is further connected to a TV controller 31 having a TV monitor 32. At this time, if the eyepiece 22 and the ITV camera 30 are connected in advance so that the vertical direction and gravity direction position of the objective lens 21 match the vertical direction of the TV monitor 32, the TV monitor image 40 The vertical direction of the pipe 50 can be made to coincide with the vertical direction of the piping 50 in the direction of gravity. Further, if an objective lens marking 41 indicating up and down is attached to the tip of the objective lens 21, it becomes easy to align the objective lens 21 and the ITV camera 30 in the up and down directions.

According to this embodiment, the sensor head 10 on which the fiberscope 23 is placed can be inserted even if there are steps, bends, etc. in the pipe, and even if the attitude of the sensor head 10 is twisted, the sensor head 10 can be inserted in the pipe 50 in the vertical direction. A pipe inspection device can be obtained which can match the vertical direction of the TV monitor 32 and the vertical direction of the pipe, and can detect the bending direction of a joint, etc., the adhesion of foreign matter in the pipe, and the vertical position of damage.

Next, FIG. 5, FIG. 6, and FIG. 7 show other embodiments of the pipe interior inspection device of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the pipe inspection device of this embodiment can be roughly divided into a fiberscope 23 having an objective lens 21 at the tip;
The sensor head 10 is composed of a substantially spherical sensor head frame 11 on which an objective lens 21 is placed, and a gravity direction indicator that indicates the direction of gravity to the objective lens 21. . The gravity direction indicator includes a rotary pendulum 12 rotatably installed in a sensor head frame 11 via a bearing 13, and a rotary pendulum 12.
It consists of a gravitational direction indicator 42 that points to the objective lens 21 the gravitational direction indicated by . If the sensor head 10 is twisted while traveling due to a step or bend in the tube, the objective lens 21 will also be twisted, but since the gravity direction indicator rod 42 always points in the direction of gravity, as shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the vertical direction inside the pipe can always be known.

Further, in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 8, 9, and 10, the objective lens 21 is used as a gravity direction indicator.
Mercury 44 and air 43 are sealed in a fluid-tight container 15 installed around the circumference, and by checking the state of mercury 44 at the same time as the inside condition of the tube with the objective lens 21, the up and down with respect to the direction of gravity inside the tube can be determined. be able to.

According to this embodiment, the sensor head 10 on which the fiberscope 23 is placed can be inserted even if there are steps, bends, etc. in the pipe, so even if the sensor head 10 is twisted, it will not move up and down relative to the gravity in the pipe. A pipe interior inspection device can be obtained that can detect the bending direction of a bent pipe, the adhesion of foreign matter inside the pipe, and the vertical position of damage.

This method has a relatively narrow field of view for observing the inside of the pipe compared to a system that uses a rotating pendulum as a gravity direction indicator, but since the structure of the sensor head 10 is very simple, it can be used as a sensor head for small-diameter pipes. Are suitable.

In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 5 to 10 above, the elastic body 10 is a tight coil spring whose inner diameter is larger than the outer diameter of the fiberscope 23, or a flexible helical tube, which is connected to the outside of the pipe. The sensor head 10 travels inside the pipe by pushing it in from the inside.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the pipe inspection device of the present invention described above,
The tube diameter is relatively small, so it can be inserted even if there are steps or curved tubes inside, and it also allows you to see the relationship between the vertical direction of the fiberscope's objective lens and the vertical direction of the pipe, so it can be inserted easily even if the tube is twisted. It is also possible to detect the bending direction of a bent pipe, the adhesion of foreign matter inside the pipe, and the position of damage, which is very effective when adopting this type of pipe interior inspection device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the pipe inspection device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a partial sectional view of Fig. 1 viewed from the direction of travel, and Fig. 3 is a state in which the pipe inspection device is installed inside the pipe. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the situation inside the pipe inspected by the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 projected on a TV monitor, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the pipe interior inspection device of the present invention. Fig. 6 is a partial sectional view of Fig. 5 viewed from the direction of travel, Fig. 7 is a view of the inside of the pipe inspected by the embodiment shown in Fig. 5, projected on a TV monitor, and Fig. 8 is a view of the inside of the pipe according to the present invention. A sectional view showing an embodiment in which a fluid-tight container is used as a gravity direction indicating device installed in an inspection device, FIG. 9 is a front view of FIG. 8 viewed from the direction of travel, and FIG. 10 is an implementation of FIG. 8. It is a diagram showing the inside of the pipe inspected as an example and displayed on a TV monitor. 10...sensor head, 11...sensor head frame, 12...rotating pendulum, 13...bearing,
14... Damping device, 15... Fluid-tight container, 20... Elastic body, 21... Objective lens, 22
...Eyepiece, 23...Fiberscope,
30... ITV camera, 31... TV controller, 32... TV monitor, 40... TV monitor image, 41... objective lens marking, 42... gravity direction indicator, 43... air, 44... mercury, 5
0...Piping, 60...Foreign object.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A fiber scope having an objective lens at its tip, and an objective lens of the fiber scope,
The fiberscope includes a rotating pendulum supported near its center of rotation, and a substantially spherical sensor head frame that accommodates the rotating pendulum and travels within the tube by the pushing force of an elastic body provided around the fiberscope. A pipe inspection device featuring: 2. The pipe inspection device according to claim 1, wherein the rotating pendulum is supported by the sensor head frame via a bearing so as to freely rotate around the center line of the sensor head frame. 3. The pipe interior inspection device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the rotating pendulum is provided with a damping device that prevents rapid rotational movement. 4. The tube inspection device according to claim 1, wherein the objective lens is provided with a mark that serves as a reference when adjusting the vertical position of the objective lens in the tube. 5. The pipe inspection device according to claim 1, wherein the elastic body is a close coil spring having an inner diameter larger than an outer diameter of the fiberscope. 6. The pipe interior inspection device according to claim 1, wherein the elastic body is comprised of a flexible spiral tube whose inner diameter is larger than the outer diameter of the fiberscope. 7. A fiberscope having an objective lens at its tip; a substantially spherical sensor head frame that supports the objective lens of the fiberscope and travels within the tube by the pushing force of an elastic body provided around the fiberscope; A pipe inspection device comprising: a gravity direction indicator for indicating a gravity direction to the objective lens. 8. The gravity direction indicator comprises a rotary pendulum rotatably installed in the sensor head frame via a bearing, and a gravity direction indicator that points the gravity direction indicated by the rotary pendulum onto the objective lens. The pipe inspection device according to claim 7, characterized in that: 9. The gravity direction indicator consists of a fluid-tight container installed around the objective lens filled with mercury and air, and the condition of the mercury is simultaneously checked with the objective lens to determine the direction of gravity inside the tube. The pipe interior inspection device according to claim 7, characterized in that it detects up and down. 10. The pipe inspection device according to claim 7, wherein the elastic body is a close coil spring having an inner diameter larger than an outer diameter of the fiberscope. 11. The tube interior inspection device according to claim 7, wherein the elastic body is a flexible spiral tube whose inner diameter is larger than the outer diameter of the fiberscope.