Patent Application
20210106195
The embodiments are generally related to vacuum suction heads, and systems and method for vacuuming pipes or tubing. More particularly, the embodiments are related to a universal vacuum suction head adapted to remove debris from various shaped piping over an entire internal surface of the piping/tubing.
In accelerator physics, a beamline refers to the trajectory of the beam of accelerated particles, including the overall construction of the path segment (guide tubes, diagnostic devices) along a specific path of an accelerator facility. In particle accelerators the beamline is usually housed in a tunnel and/or underground, often cased inside a concrete housing for shielding purposes. The beamline is usually a cylindrical metal pipe, typically called a beam pipe, and/or a drift tube, evacuated to a high vacuum so there are few gas molecules in the path for the beam of accelerated particles to hit, which otherwise could scatter them before they reach their destination.
There are specialized devices and equipment on the beamline that are used for producing, maintaining, monitoring, and accelerating the particle beam. These devices may be in proximity of or attached directly to the beamline. These devices include sophisticated transducers, diagnostics (position monitors and wire scanners), lenses, collimators, thermocouples, ion gauges, ion chambers (for diagnostic purposes; usually called “beam monitors”), vacuum valves (“isolation valves”), and gate valves, to mention a few. It is imperative to have all beamline sections, magnets, etc., aligned (often by a survey and an alignment crew by using a laser tracker), beamlines must be within micrometer tolerance. Good alignment helps to prevent beam loss, and beam from colliding with the pipe walls, which creates secondary emissions and/or radiation.
Adding in new components into the beamline requires the section of beam pipe to be removed. In the case that there is not a flange connection near by, a cut has to be made. A cut can be made in various ways including using saws, pipe cutters, and the like. Each cutting method creates debris in the beam pipe. This debris has to be cleaned up because of the nature of the environment (e.g., sterilized lab, food preparation area, clean rooms). An existing method for cleaning the internal surface of a newly cut beam pipe requires the use of a vacuuming system (e.g., a RAD (radiation) vacuum) configured with a small tube connected to the vacuum hose and configured with a stick or pole to retrieve debris laying within the beam pipe. A tech can typically spend up to 45 minutes collecting each particulate in the beam pipe using a RAD vacuum. The tech may also need to hold a flashlight in one hand to see within the beam pipe while vacuuming inside it. The problem with this method include increased exposer to high radiation areas, the required time for cleaning prevents techs from working on other tasks, and there is a higher probability that debris will be missed given the difficulty to reach or see what is being vacuumed within a beam pipe.
What is needed in the art is an improved means for cleaning beam pipes, and that can also be useful in applications where debris clean up within delicate systems (e.g., food processing plants, breweries, water treatment centers), is needed.
The following summary is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the innovative features unique to the embodiments disclosed and is not intended to be a full description. A full appreciation of the various aspects of the embodiments can be gained by taking the entire specification, claims, drawings, and abstract as a whole.
It is a feature of the embodiment to provide a universal vacuum suction head that can be connected to a vacuum system and adapted to remove debris from various shaped piping (e.g., circular, oval, rectangular, square) over an entire internal surface of the piping/tubing.
In accordance with a feature of the preferred embodiment of the invention, a universal vacuum suction head that includes chamfer slots to act as scoops and inlet slits positioned to achieve 360 degrees of suction internal surface coverage for suction of debris.
In accordance with another feature of the preferred embodiment of the invention, a universal vacuum suction head that includes lighting to illuminate the inside of pipe.
In accordance with yet another feature of the preferred embodiment of the invention, a universal vacuum suction head that includes a wireless camera to provide video from a front surface of the universal vacuum head, thereby enabling user direction and feedback during universal vacuum suction head operation with a vacuum source.
The aforementioned aspects and other objectives and advantages can now be achieved as described herein.
The accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally-similar elements throughout the separate views and which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, further illustrate the embodiments and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain the embodiments disclosed herein.
The particular values and configurations discussed in the following non-limiting examples can be varied, and are cited merely to illustrate one or more embodiments and are not intended to limit the scope thereof.
Example embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which illustrative embodiments are shown. The embodiments disclosed can be embodied in many 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 embodiments to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
Throughout the specification and claims, terms may have nuanced meanings suggested or implied in context beyond an explicitly stated meaning. Likewise, the phrase “in one embodiment” as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment and the phrase “in another embodiment” as used herein does not necessarily refer to a different embodiment. It is intended, for example, that claimed subject matter include combinations of example embodiments in whole or in part.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
It is contemplated that any embodiment discussed in this specification can be implemented with respect to any method, kit, reagent, or composition of the invention, and vice versa. Furthermore, compositions of the invention can be used to achieve methods of the invention.
It will be understood that particular embodiments described herein are shown by way of illustration and not as limitations of the invention. The principal features of this invention can be employed in various embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, numerous equivalents to the specific procedures described herein. Such equivalents are considered to be within the scope of this invention and are covered by the claims.
The use of the word “a” or “an” when used in conjunction with the term “comprising” in the claims and/or the specification may mean “one,” but it is also consistent with the meaning of “one or more,” “at least one,” and “one or more than one.” The use of the term “or” in the claims is used to mean “and/or” unless explicitly indicated to refer to alternatives only or the alternatives are mutually exclusive, although the disclosure supports a definition that refers to only alternatives and “and/or.” Throughout this application, the term “about” is used to indicate that a value includes the inherent variation of error for the device, the method being employed to determine the value, or the variation that exists among the study subjects.
As used in this specification and claim(s), the words “comprising” (and any form of comprising, such as “comprise” and “comprises”), “having” (and any form of having, such as “have” and “has”), “including” (and any form of including, such as “includes” and “include”) or “containing” (and any form of containing, such as “contains” and “contain”) are inclusive or open-ended and do not exclude additional, un-recited elements or method steps.
The term “or combinations thereof” as used herein refers to all permutations and combinations of the listed items preceding the term. For example, “A, B, C, or combinations thereof” is intended to include at least one of: A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC, and if order is important in a particular context, also BA, CA, CB, CBA, BCA, ACB, BAC, or CAB. Continuing with this example, expressly included are combinations that contain repeats of one or more item or term, such as BB, AAA, AB, BBC, AAABCCCC, CBBAAA, CABABB, and so forth. The skilled artisan will understand that typically there is no limit on the number of items or terms in any combination, unless otherwise apparent from the context.
All of the compositions and/or methods disclosed and claimed herein can be made and executed without undue experimentation in light of the present disclosure. While the compositions and methods of this invention have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that variations may be applied to the compositions and/or methods and in the steps or in the sequence of steps of the method described herein without departing from the concept, spirit and scope of the invention. All such similar substitutes and modifications apparent to those skilled in the art are deemed to be within the spirit, scope and concept of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
A distinction between pipes and tubes, where “pipes” can refer to one specific system of material sizing that goes by the inner diameter and “tubes” can refer to one specific system of material sizing that goes by the outer diameter. Enclosures can be any enclosed volume, including pipes, tubes, square sections, custom cross sections, etc. For purposes of this disclosure, usage of terms pipes and tubes is meant to be interchangeable, and without suggesting a limitation as to application of embodiments of the invention.
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It should now be appreciated that the present invention can be useful for various industries where piping, tubing or vessel can become contaminated or require cleansing. Such industries include food processing plants, breweries, water treatment centers, and duct maintenance.
It will be appreciated that variations of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also, it should be understood that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein could be subsequently made by those skilled in the art, which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
