Patent Application
20150122171
The present disclosure relates to marking devices produced in an assortment of colors and a method to identify individual pipes and other enclosures housing valves in a multi-valve distribution and/or transmission system for fluids, such as water for municipal utility infrastructures, natural gas from utility companies, oil from refineries, steam from steam generators etc.
As an example, municipal water distribution and/or transmission systems infrastructures comprise of as a minimum: mainline, connection, drain, pressure district, pressure regulating and pressure maintaining valves. The absence of a proper identification system of the different types and sizes of regulating valves in a multi-valve setup, the fluid flow direction, or the valve operation direction have been the source of constant recurring problems and failures that have caused some districts to be deprived of water unnecessarily. There have been reports of accidental water cut-off to fire hydrants when it was most needed by fire fighters. Similarly, water from higher pressure pipes have been misdirected to low pressure type pipes which then burst and result in unnecessary and avoidable costly expenses for repairs. One industrial area, highly dependent on water for production and processing was deprived of water for a few days while the municipality was investigating the cause for water interruption. Over the last century, the absence of a worldwide municipality standard regarding the operation of water valves that are used has resulted in some valves manufacturers producing valves with a CLOCKWISE operation to OPEN and others with a COUNTER CLOCKWISE operation to OPEN. This has led to confusion, human error, and increased risk to employees, public safety, infrastructures, the environment and a waste of energy during the pumping of water continuously 24/7 due to an opened valve which should have been in a closed position, in the first place to prevent a continuous re-circulation of water. An improved and clearly visible permanent method of identification of each type of valve and the flow direction of fluid carrying pipe will address most of the problems caused by human error through guess work. Down time of water supply interruption will be reduced to a minimum.
United States Patent Publication No. US-2012-0295244-A1 (Perin et al.) teaches an apparatus and method for visually identifying valves in multi valve distribution and transmission systems. A colour coding system is established and color coded valve box inserts are made to specifications, inserted and secured into place at the opening of valve boxes. Each box insert has a tubular main body with an extending flange having a dimension larger than the upper edge of the tubular main body. The tubular body may be tapered to provide a clearance fit with the housing at the bottom of the tubular body, but an interference fit with the housing at the top, so as to hold the apparatus in place within the housing. The tapered shape could result in the apparatus being difficult to remove from the housing. The apparatus is selected for installation in a size where the extending flange is larger than would fit within a valve box, stopping the apparatus from being inserted beyond the upper edge of the tubular main body. Unfortunately, a fixed size moulded tubular piece is rendered useless by the smallest variation in the internal circumference or diameter of an opening to a valve box, housing or pipe. It would be necessary to stock many different fixed size moulded tubular apparatuses in order to enable an installer to be able to identify valves in housings made by different manufacturers and not of a single standard size. A further problem could arise if the fixed sized molded tubular apparatus becomes tilted out of plumb within the valve housing. The apparatus could become wedged at an angle within the housing, potentially interfering with access to the valve. Alternatively, the apparatus could slide down within the housing to a depth where it is no longer clearly visible to fulfill its visual identification function. Moreover, the apparatus is employs an outwardly extending upper flange to secure itself to the valve housing. The apparatus can only be secured if it is installed inside the housing. It could not be installed on the outside of the valve housing or on the outside of a pipe, as there would be no means for retaining the apparatus in position.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a marking device which is adjustable in diameter so as to accommodate installation on a range of valve housing or pipe diameters
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a marking device which can be mounted securely to a valve housing in proper alignment so that the marking device does not become wedged, does not fall off due to improper alignment, and which can be readily removed and reinstalled when desired.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a marking device which can be mounted to either the inside or the outside of a valve housing or a pipe.
An adjustable marking device for visually identifying a valve housing, or a pipe comprises a substantially planar flexible body having a tail, a head, and a visual indicator. A fixing means will hold the tail and the head when the tail and the head are brought into overlapping proximity with one another to form an in use configuration to fit said housing or pipe. A permanent magnet is secured to the body for magnetic attachment to said housing or pipe. The permanent magnet is secured to a front surface of the body. The body comprises, adjacent, the front surface thereof, a magnet cavity sized and shaped to securely receive the permanent magnet. The permanent magnet is constructed from sintered Neodymium Nd2Fe14B. The visual indicator may be a directional indicator or a colour indicator.
A marking method for visually identifying a valve housing or a pipe in a multi-valve fluid distribution and/or transmission system comprises the following steps. A colour-coding system is provided for identifying the valve housings or the pipes in the multi-valve fluid distribution and/or transmission system. An adjustable marking device having a substantially planar flexible body having a tail, a head; a fixing means to hold the tail and the head when they are brought into overlapping proximity with one another to form an in use configuration to fit the valve housing or pipe; a permanent magnet secured to the body for magnetic attachment to said housing or pipe; and a colour indicator is selected corresponding to a colour in the colour coding system The adjustable marking device is formed into an in use configuration, and, is magnetically attached to the valve housing or pipe.
The adjustable marking device may further comprise a directional indicator. In such instance, the method further comprises the following steps: identifying a directional operation of the valve; and, orienting the selected adjustable marking device so that the directional indicator indicates the directional operation of the valve before magnetically attaching the selected adjustable marking device to the valve housing or the pipe.
The present disclosure relates to an adjustable marking device, as indicated by reference numeral 100 in
The adjustable marking device comprises a substantially planar body having a tail and a head; a permanent magnet secured to the body for magnetic attachment to a valve housing or pipe, and a visual indicator. The visual indicator may be a colour indicator, or a direction indicator, or both.
Referring to
Although not essential to the functioning of the adjustable marking device in its broadest concept, the main body 101 should not only be flexible, but should also be elastic, i.e. capable of elastic deformation. If the main body 101 is capable of elastic deformation, then the adjustable marking device 100 will be able to be used on a pipe or valve housing and then removed and reused. If the main body 101 were constructed from a material which was flexible only, (such as aluminum or certain nylons it could be adjusted to the size and shape the housing/pipe 200, but might not successfully be reused for marking other housings/pipes subsequently. Having the main body 101 constructed from an elastic material will allow the adjustable marking device 100 to be reused. The main body 101 may be constructed from many elastic materials having high shear strength, good water, oil and grease resistance, and can maintain their mechanical integrity including flexibility, breakage and tear resistance, and fire retardancy when exposed to extreme temperatures, which is preferred because valve housings are subject to both hot and cold temperatures and exposed to the elements. It is preferred to construct the main body 101 by injection moulding from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) material. TPU material is resistant to tearing, resistant to abrasion, has excellent mechanical properties, combined with a rubber-like high elasticity, high shear strength, high transparency, good oil and grease resistance, and very good flexibility, TPU material is also resistant to extreme temperatures while still retaining its mechanical integrity including flexibility, breakage and tear resistance, and fire retardancy, which is preferred because valve housings are subject to both hot and cold temperatures and exposed to the elements.
The adjustable marking device 100 comprises a permanent magnet 103 for magnetic attachment to the housing/pipe 200. As can be seen in
It should be noted that the quantity, type and size of the permanent magnets 103 will vary depending on the length of the flexible, reversible and rotatable magnetic marking device 100 to maintain the optimum magnetic field for a permanent adhesion to the housing/pipe 200. Although several types of permanent magnets (including standard black magnets) could be used, they are not preferred due to weakness of the magnetic field (necessitating direct physical contact between the surface of the magnet and the housing), brittleness, etc. It is preferred to construct the permanent magnets from sintered Neodymium Nd2Fe14B permanent magnets with a grade of no less than N35. Such magnets are made from an alloy of rare earth Neodymium, Iron and Boron to form the Nd2Fe14B tetragonal crystalline structure. Nd2Fe14B permanent magnet is preferred because it is one of the strongest types of permanent magnets. The tetragonal structure has exceptionally high uniaxial magneto-crystalline anisotropy. This gives the compound the potential to have high coercivity, i.e. resistance to being demagnetized. The compound also has a high saturation magnetization. Therefore, as the maximum energy density is proportional to the saturation magnetization, this magnetic phase has the potential for storing large amounts of magnetic energy for an extremely high remanence, a high Curie temperature of between 310 to 400 degrees Celsius, flexural strength, compressive strength, tensile strength, and hardness. If Nd2Fe14B magnets are used, they do not need to be in physical contact with the housing to which the mounting device is attached. They have a sufficiently strong magnetic field to hold the adjustable marking device in place on a housing with the magnets being in close proximity to, but outside physical contact with the housing. The magnets may be chrome plated in order to avoid rust corrosion in applications where the magnets may be exposed to water or oxidizing agents.
The permanent magnets 103 can be mounted on the main body 101 by a number of means. For example, the magnets could be glued to the body, though glued mountings may fail over time, particularly in situations where rigid objects (magnets) are glued to a flexibly body. Holes could be punched in the body and then magnets press fit into the holes. This mounting means is not preferred since it would expose the magnets to possible breakage, and the magnets would be equally exposed to both surfaces of the body, eliminating the possibility of selectively insulating one side of the magnet. Magnets could be inset into retainers which are then attached to the body (by post and backing systems or the like). This mounting means is not preferred since manufacture would be complicated and multi-stage, and there is significant potential for the magnets to become dislodged from the body.
The preferred means for securing the permanent magnets is to mould the body 101 with a plurality of magnet cavities 102 on the front surface 110 thereof, sized and shaped to retain one of the permanent magnets 103. For illustration purposes,
As seen in
The protrusions 114 are shown in the drawings as a plurality of horizontal parallel ribs, the particular shape and arrangement of the protrusions is not essential, and could be varied. The tail 112 and the head 113 of the body 101 are brought into overlapping proximity to form the in use configuration of the adjustable marking device 100, as best shown in
In the preferred embodiment shown in the drawings, the fixing means 115 comprises the magnets 103 which are positioned adjacent the head 113 being retained in the sizing cut-out 108,109 in the tail 112. As shown in
The front surface 110 of the body 101 has the exposed magnet cavities 102 containing the magnets 103 and is directed toward a surface of the housing/pipe 200 for magnetic engagement therewith. The adjustable marking device 100 can be applied to either the internal surface 201 of a pipe/housing 200 as shown in
The body 101 forms at least one sizing cut-out positioned adjacent the tail 112. As shown in the drawings, it is preferred to form at least two sizing cut-outs 108, 109. The sizing cut-outs are preferably elongated and have a proximal end closer 117 to the head 113 and a distal end 118 closer to the tail 112. The sizing cut-outs 108,109 are sized and positioned to receive a pair of the magnets 103 therethrough. The use of elongated cut-outs permits infinite adjustability within the length of the cut-out 108,109. The sizing cut-outs 108,109 facilitate the size adjustment of the adjustable marking device 101 to fit pipes/housings of varying sizes. When the adjustable marking device 100 is fitted to a pipe/housing 200, there is an amount of overlap between the head 113 and the tail 112. The magnets 103 will pass through the cut-outs 108, 109 at a position determined by the extent of overlap between the head 113 and tail 112. The smaller the diameter, the more overlap and the closer to the proximal ends 117 of the cut-outs 108, 109, is the position where the magnets 103 will pass through the cut-outs.
Although less preferred, it would be possible to provide either a single large elongated cut-out to receive a pair of magnets, or a plurality of smaller cut-outs (such as circles) to receive individual magnets at preset positions along the body 101 in order to facilitate adjustment size adjustment of the adjustable marking device. The less preferred cut-out shapes may impair the stability of the in use configuration and/or may limit the range of adjustment of the marking device.
As mentioned above, the adjustable marking device comprises a visual indicator 120. The visual indicator may be directional indicator 106 to identify whether a valve has a clockwise or counter clockwise operation. The directional indicator could take the form of an arrow or device applied to the front and back surfaces of the body 101. In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, the directional indicator is an arrow-shaped opening which can be seen from both sides of the body 101. The body 101 is molded to form an arrow-shaped hole 106 therethrough oriented in a direction parallel to the longitudinal orientation of body 101. As best seen in
The adjustable marking device 100 of the present invention further comprises an access opening 107 formed through the body 101. The access opening can be used to run wires to the valve etc.
A further feature of the adjustable marking device 100 is the ability to establish a colour code in order to identify different types of fluid carrying pipes, different pressure capacities, different flow directions etc. Each municipality or gas distributing or steam generating or oil refining entity can create its own color-coding system using a color set having an appropriate number of different colors to identify each type of valve and/or flow direction of fluid carrying pipe. A color-coding chart may also be created to allow front line on-site field staff to easily identify each type of valve by cross-referencing the color-coded chart to different types of valves.
The adjustable marking device 100 further comprises a colour indicator. The colour indicator can be formed in multiple ways. A colour swatch could be applied to the front surface and the back surface of the body 101. Alternatively, the colour indicator can comprise the colour of the entirety of the body 101.
Preferably the body 101 is molded from a flexible, elastic material that is available in an assortment of different colors. Most preferably thermoplastic polyurethane which is available in an assortment of colours is the moulding material. When the body 101 is moulded it is inherently the colour of the coloured starting material. The colour would be visible from both the front and back sides of the body, and would not require any maintenance for color retention after it has been attached to valve housings and/or fluid carrying pipes. Less preferably, each body 101 could be manufactured of a single base material and then later painted or otherwise coated with a coloured material.
