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, steam 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 associated with the lining of pipes are joints of separate liners installed in a pipe system, typically at branches and junctions of the pipe system. A certain amount of overlapping of liners is desirable to prevent a leak between the liners. In branches and junctions this is sometimes difficult to implement by using straight tubular liners. Therefore, separate branch pieces have been used to prepare a branch with one layer of liner before lining the pipes which connect to the branch. The branch piece has essentially the same form as the branch, for example, T-shaped branch piece for a T-branch and Y-shaped branch piece for a Y-branch. A number of pulling wires and push rods are connected to the branch piece before installation so that the branch piece can be moved to the branch position. Inside the branch piece, a separate inflatable bladder is connected to an air hose which supplies air to the bladder and pushes the branch piece against walls of the pipe system at the branch position by inflating the bladder. A problem with this installation system is that it is a complicated system with all the wires, rods and hoses. It usually requires access to the branch position through more than one pipe and several employees have to work in cooperation to place the branch piece is correct position by using the pull wires and push rods.
It is an object of the present invention to present a device that alleviates the problems associated with the prior art solutions.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds