Patent Application
20180010748
The present invention relates generally to the field of lighting systems, and in particular to lighting systems for portable use.
Drilling rigs are used to form wellbores for the purpose of extracting oil, natural gas or other fluids from subsurface deposits. Drilling rigs can also be used for sampling subsurface mineral deposits, testing rock or ground fluid properties and for installing subsurface utilities, instrumentations, tunnels or wells. In implementation, drilling rigs may be mobile equipment transportable by truck, rail, trailers, or similar, rigs may also be semi-permanent and permanent fixtures as in the case for oil drilling of large wells. Marine-based structures are also widely known. Generally, the term drilling rig refers to an arrangement of equipment that is used to penetrate the subsurface of the earth's crust.
Drilling operations, as well as work at other outdoor work sites, e.g., construction, mining, pipeline work, etc., typically occur during daylight hours and visibility in and around the drilling rig or work site has historically only been required when manual work is being done, inspection and calibration, for example. There is a desire to increase productivity by providing visibility during hours of low daylight, and this has thus far been accomplished by providing mobile lighting arrangements on vehicles proximate the drilling rig, or otherwise manually adding impromptu lighting arrangements.
However, because of the extreme weather conditions drilling operations typically occur in, for example high and low temperature conditions, and variable and high wind conditions, many lighting systems for this and other uses and environments have been found to be inadequate for these purposes.
A transportable lighting system is described herein including a transportable, skid base, a stabilizing outrigger system attached to the base, at least one power generator attached to the skid base, a transfer switch connected to at least one power generator, an external power supply adapter connected to the transfer switch, an extendable tower system have a base end and a top end attached to the skid base, at least one set of lights attached to the top end, where the lighting system has a top load capacity of up to about 1500 pounds and is stable in wind gusts up to about 140 miles per hour (US Rating) and about 70 miles per hour constant wind speed (Canadian Rating).
Additional embodiments include: the lighting system described above, including two power generators connected by an additional transfer switch; the lighting system described above, including an additional transfer switch to connect at least one generator to an external power supply;
the lighting system described above, where the stabilizing outrigger system includes four, fold-out, lock-in-place, extendable legs; the lighting system described above including two power generators attached to the skid base; the lighting system described above, where the two power generators are connected to one another by a first transfer switch and connected to the external power supply adapter by a second transfer switch; the lighting system described above where the set of lights, and each light in the set, can swivel and/or tilt; the lighting system described above, where the tower system comprises at least two tower sections containing a hydraulic extension system contained within the tower sections; the lighting system described above, where the tower system includes at least three tower sections, containing a pulley extension system in at least one of the sections; the lighting system described above where the tower system includes four tower sections; the lighting system described above where the tower system is fully extended.
The particulars shown herein are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the various embodiments of the present invention only and are presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the invention. In this regard, no attempt is made to show details of the invention in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention, the description making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the invention may be embodied in practice.
The present invention will now be described by reference to more detailed embodiments. This invention may, however, be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The terminology used in the description of the invention herein is for describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used in the description of the invention and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. All publications, patent applications, patents, and other references mentioned herein are expressly incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Unless otherwise indicated, all numbers expressing quantities of ingredients, reaction conditions, and so forth used in the specification and claims are to be understood as being modified in all instances by the term “about.” Accordingly, unless indicated to the contrary, the numerical parameters set forth in the following specification and attached claims are approximations that may vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by the present invention. At the very least, and not as an attempt to limit the application of the doctrine of equivalents to the scope of the claims, each numerical parameter should be construed in light of the number of significant digits and ordinary rounding approaches.
Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scope of the invention are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as possible. Any numerical value, however, inherently contains certain errors necessarily resulting from the standard deviation found in their respective testing measurements. Every numerical range given throughout this specification will include every narrower numerical range that falls within such broader numerical range, as if such narrower numerical ranges were all expressly written herein.
Additional advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed
As described above, the portable lighting systems described herein are specifically designed to withstand the difficult and extreme weather conditions typically experienced in harsh exterior conditions encountered especially in remote locations. For example, the lighting systems described herein can withstand sustained wind speeds up to about 70 miles per hour (MPH) and brief wind gusts (e.g., up to 3 seconds) of up to about 140 MPH. The systems are also designed and built to Canadian −45 (degree Celsius) structural cold weather steel ductility requirements, which represent extremely stringent standards.
The wheel and roller arrangements described herein are designed for minimal friction.
The power source for powering the lights and extending and contracting the telescopic lighting system towers typically contain dual power transfer switches. Power source can be external, such as that used to provide power to the drilling rig, for example, or the internal generator or back up generator contained in the lighting system itself. One switch provides the ability to switch between generators and an additional switch provides the ability to switch from the internal generators to an external power source. The switches can be manually or automatically operated, although automatic operation (e.g., triggered by failure of one of the power sources), would add additional cost to accommodate.
The overall pulley design for the lifting of the unit (for, example, the way the cables are orientated) is extremely robust. As demonstrated in
The wheels and the rollers are set up as cams which can be fine-tuned and adjusted at full extension. For example, the units can be set up to have ¼ inch gap while rolling up and shim plates installed at the last 10″ of the tower extension. The cam rollers are set and wheels tightened to the shim plates (shim plates for example set up on the inside at the top of each section) so that the tower extends and retracts freely (¼ inch gap). At the last 10 inches of extension the tower comes tight in place due to the cams being set tight to the final shim plates.
Inner tower mast guide rollers 703 designed to contact the inner extendable tower mast when extended and contracted as the tower system moves in a vertical direction, typically present on the upper portion of the tower mast 701, cable sheave 702, hydraulic ram sleeve 704, and outer tower mast guide rollers 703, typically present on the lower portion of the tower mast and designed to contact the inner portion of the larger telescoping tower mast below it when extended and contracted as the tower system moves in a vertical direction are also shown.
The outrigger design (fold out and lock in place), while relative simple, is easy to use and works extremely well—quick, safe and efficient in set up. As demonstrated in
The overall layout, including the wide footprint, of the system described herein is extremely stable, and can accomplish the described wind resistance without the need for added guide wires, anchors, or other external stability aids. The system described herein also includes commercially available duel transfer switch setup to allow the lighting system to be powered by an external power supply (for example, like power supply powering the rig power) or from its own generator and (100% power) back-up generator. So the first transfer switch will allow switching from internal generator #1 to generator #2 and the second transfer switch will allow switching from generator 1 or 2 to an external power source. Transfer switches can be located at any convenient location where space is available on the skid, for example, on a support panel placed between 412 and 406 shown in
While any lights can be used, the lighter and brighter the lights the better. For example, individual lights which are actively cooled (e.g., fan to cooled) would allow the housing to be lighter as compared to conventional LED fixtures, which typically use larger surface areas to cool (larger areas are also heavier and adds more sail area for wind loading calculations). While many different styles of light may be used, output vs weight/surface area is a consideration. The use of aluminum in the light frames, etc. is also a consideration in this regard.
As mentioned, the transportable lighting system described herein is skid mounted and completely mobile, while providing extreme temperature and weather tolerance and wind stability. It is relatively easy to move with the use of conventional trucks and extremely easy to set up for use and operate.
The entire light bank is also designed so that it can swivel and tilt, as can each individual light in the bank of lights. The position of each individual light as well as the light bank itself can be pre-set manually, or designed with motor controls to allow adjustments remotely.
Similarly, as shown in
As can be appreciated, while the towers described herein are particularly useful extended to heights of about 75 feet, they can be used at heights below 75 feet, and designed for use at extended heights greater than 75 feet as well. The tower can also be raised in shorter segments to accommodate different height usage desires, for example, in five foot increments until the desired use height is attained.
In a representative system as shown in
The exemplary standalone 75 foot tower depicted in
The lights 113 shown here are similar to the lights shown in commonly assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/093,097, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. The lights as well as the entire light bank can both tilt and swivel to better focus the lights on the intended illumination target. The lights connected by light support 114 to the frame 115 are typically aluminum for weight reasons, although other materials can be used. 116 is the cover for the light frame tilt and swivel mechanism, which is between the frame and the tower.
117 is pivot point for the outrigger vertical support piece 122 and is where the locking pin for the outrigger bar structure 118 is located. 119 are the structural bars attached to the skid to support the tower sections during transport and the pivot point for vertical orientation and extension. 121 is the hydraulic ram used for tilting the tower sections into a vertical orientation from connection point 120. 133 is a double walled fuel tank containing the fuel to power the two attached power generators (124 and 203 in
In
The lighting system is shown fully extended in
315 is the hydraulic rod or arm used for tilting the tower structure from horizontal to vertical, and vice versa, extending out of hydraulic ram 330. 312 is where it connects to the tower. 322 and 323 are the structural cross members (also shown in
As shown in
In
A locking system for the towers as described herein is demonstrated in more detail in
The scope of the claims should not be limited by the preferred embodiments set forth in description of the preferred embodiments or in the examples, but should be given the broadest interpretation consistent with the description as a whole.
The instant application is an International Application claiming priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/109,966, filed Jan. 30, 2015, the disclosure of which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2015/059745 | 12/17/2015 | WO | 00 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62109966 | Jan 2015 | US |
