Design of Automatic Submarine Oil and Gas Pipeline Tapping Machine

The characteristics for submarine oil and gas pipe tapping are analyzed, and a new type of submarine oil and gas pipeline tapping machine (SOGPTM) that can achieve fully automatic cycle is built. The SOGPTM is furnished with all functions of a land-based pipeline tapping machine. As a diver can not monitor the process for a long time when the SOGPTM runs on a submarine pipeline, a hydraulic control system comprising a hydraulic control valve block, a hydraulic cylinder, a synchronous clutch and a hydraulic power is designed. The hydraulic control valve block is fixed on the spindle of the tapping machine body and coordinated with a side benchmark of the tapping machine body; hence the tapping process can be controlled fully automatically through touching valves. Results of experiments indicate that the SOGPTM can fully automatically complete the cycle comprising rapid feeding, slow feeding, rapid retraction, and stopping according to the preset travel without any manual intervention. The SOGPTM solves the problem for fully automatic submarine pipeline tapping.