Pipes, such as water and sewage pipes, approaching the end of their service life may be renovated e.g. by lining or coating the inside of an old pipe or by mounting a new pipe into an old pipe. An epoxy resin-impregnated polyester liner, for example, that is inverted into a pipe to be renovated using compressed air or water can be used in lining. After inversion of the liner into the pipe, excess pressure is maintained inside the liner until the epoxy resin cures to its shape conforming to the walls of the old pipe. Modern technology allows even highly complex pipes to be lined.
One of the problems with solutions of the prior art is reinstating connections in a pipeline when a pipe of the pipeline has been lined. The liner typically covers the whole inner surface of the old pipe that was lined and blocks all connections, e.g. from lateral pipes to a lined main pipe. Typically, these connections are opened with a robot cutter that is transported in to the main line and operated manually. A camera of the robot is used for finding the lateral connection and a cutting head is operated to cut the liner blocking the connection while monitoring the process with the camera. This method is slow and risky because an operator of the robot can accidentally hit the liner with the cutting head outside of the connection and expose the old pipe behind the liner. The use of the robot cutter also requires that the main pipe where the robot operates is large enough and straight enough because the robots are bulky and cannot move through tight bends in the pipe.
It is an object of the present invention to present a device that allows safer and/or faster opening of a connection to a lined pipe than the prior art solutions.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds