JPH0712955A - Buried pipe marking system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To provide a buried pipe marking system that can extend the communication distance when communicating with a buried pipe. [Structure] An exploration device 100 that transmits an electromagnetic wave, and a buried pipe 3 that transmits an electromagnetic wave for response when the electromagnetic wave is received.
00 is attached to the joint portion 310 of the indicator unit 00, and the indicator device 200 transmits and receives electromagnetic waves and includes an antenna unit including a loop coil 230 for transmission and reception, and a direct current obtained by converting a reception signal from the antenna unit. I for a data carrier that operates on electric power and sends a transmission signal modulated by embedded information stored in advance to an antenna unit
In the buried pipe marking system, which includes the C element 210 and demodulates and outputs the buried information when receiving the electromagnetic wave, the exploration device 100 includes the loop coil 230 on one of the inside and the inner surface of the joint part 310 and the joint part. It was provided in the circumferential direction of 310.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a buried pipe marking system for checking the buried position of a buried pipe.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some buried pipes such as gas pipes, water supply pipes, and sewer pipes buried in the ground are made of thermoplastic synthetic resin. The worker connects the buried pipes to each other and bury them in the ground. For connecting the buried pipe, for example, the tip of the buried pipe is melted by heat and connected.

Although the buried pipe is buried in this way, the buried position may be checked at a later date for construction or the like. To this end, as shown in FIG. 5, a wireless transponder 400 that responds to electromagnetic waves is attached to the buried pipe 300. An example of this wireless response device is a wireless response tag.

When the radio response tag receives an electromagnetic wave from the reading device, it rectifies the electromagnetic wave to generate DC power,
A transmission signal is generated by this DC power. Then, the electromagnetic wave to be sent to the reading device is transmitted by this transmission signal. At this time, the wireless response tag modulates the transmission signal with the embedded information stored in advance.

When receiving the electromagnetic wave from the wireless response tag, the reading device demodulates the received signal and outputs the embedded information. This reading device and the wireless response tag are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-39.
It is shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 483.

By using such a wireless response tag, it is possible to detect the buried position of the buried pipe and obtain information on the buried pipe.

[0007]

By the way, the wireless response tag attached to the buried pipe is provided with an antenna for receiving an electromagnetic wave from the reading device. However, since the antenna is embedded in the body of the wireless response tag, the size of the antenna is limited and the communication distance cannot be extended.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above drawbacks and to provide a buried pipe marking system capable of extending a communication distance when communicating with a buried pipe.

[0009]

In order to achieve the object of the present invention, an exploration device for transmitting an electromagnetic wave and a marker attached to a joint portion of a buried pipe for transmitting an electromagnetic wave for response when the electromagnetic wave is received. And a labeling device,
An antenna unit that transmits and receives electromagnetic waves to and from the exploration device and that has a loop coil for transmission and reception, and an antenna that operates with DC power that is a conversion of the received signal from this antenna unit and that has a transmission signal that is modulated with embedded information that is stored in advance. A data communication unit to be sent to the section, the exploration device, in the buried pipe marking system that demodulates and outputs the buried information when receiving an electromagnetic wave from the identification device, a loop coil on one of the inside and the inner surface of the joint unit, Moreover, it is provided in the circumferential direction of the joint portion.

[0010]

With this configuration, the marker device includes the loop coil dedicated to transmission and reception as an antenna. Further, the loop coil is provided inside or on the inner surface of the joint portion of the buried pipe and in the circumferential direction of the joint portion. As a result, the diameter of the loop coil becomes approximately the same as the diameter of the joint portion.

In this state, when the exploration device transmits an electromagnetic wave, the loop coil of the antenna part of the marking device has a diameter substantially the same as the diameter of the joint part, so that the electromagnetic wave is efficiently received and a reception signal is generated. To do. The data communication unit generates DC power from this received signal. Then, using this DC power, a transmission signal modulated with the stored embedded information is generated. The loop coil efficiently generates electromagnetic waves from this transmission signal.

The exploration device receives and demodulates the electromagnetic wave from the marking device, extracts the embedded information, and outputs it.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention. The buried pipe marking system includes an exploration device 100 that searches the synthetic resin-made buried pipe 300, and a marking device 200 installed in a joint portion 310 of the buried pipe 300.
The joint part 310 includes a pipe part 320 and a pipe part 320 made of synthetic resin.
And are connected by, for example, heat fusion.

The search device 100 transmits the magnetic field component of the electromagnetic wave as a carrier wave when searching for the buried pipe 300. Further, when rewriting the embedded information stored in the marker device 200, a modulated wave (magnetic field component of electromagnetic wave) is transmitted.
On the other hand, when the modulated wave (the magnetic field component of the electromagnetic wave) from the marking device 200 is received, the embedded information of the marking device 200 is demodulated and displayed from this modulated wave.

The exploration apparatus 100 includes an apparatus body 110 that generates a carrier signal and demodulates a modulated signal, and an apparatus body 1
An antenna 130 that transmits a carrier wave when a carrier signal from 10 is added and generates a modulated signal when a modulated wave is received.

An example of the apparatus body 110 is shown in FIG. The power supply circuit 112 of the apparatus main body 110 stabilizes the voltage of the battery 111 and supplies it to the circuits 113 to 118. The control circuit 116 follows the control procedure stored in the memory circuit 115 to modulate / amplify circuit 114 or amplify / demodulate circuit 11.
7 control of transmission / reception, control of display of the display circuit 118, control of switching of the switch 119, and the like.
The capacitor 120 constitutes a resonance circuit together with the antenna 130, and selects a magnetic field component from the marking device 200 when receiving.

The modulation / amplification circuit 114 is an oscillation circuit 113.
Amplifies the high-frequency signal oscillated by the antenna 130, passes through the switch 119, and uses the high-frequency signal as a carrier signal for the antenna 130.
Send to. When the amplification / demodulation circuit 117 receives the modulated signal from the antenna 130 via the switch 119,
This signal is amplified and demodulated and embedded information is supplied to the control circuit 11
Send to 6. The control circuit 116 causes the display circuit 118 to display this embedded information.

When an instruction to change the embedded information is added to the apparatus body 110, the control circuit 116 sends the embedded information stored in the memory circuit 115 or the embedded information added to the apparatus body to the modulation / amplification circuit 114. The modulation / amplification circuit 114 modulates this embedded information and sends a modulated signal to the antenna 130.

The above is the structure of the exploration device 100.

Next, the marking device 200 will be described.
The labeling device 200 includes a data carrier IC (Integrated Circuit) element 210 as a data communication unit, a capacitor 220, and a loop coil 230. In this embodiment, the antenna unit includes a capacitor 220 and a loop coil 230.

An example of the data carrier IC element 210 of the marking device 200 is shown in FIG. The rectifying / smoothing circuit 211 of the IC element 210 for data carrier includes the loop coil 23.
0 receives the carrier wave and the carrier signal generated by the switch 2
When received via 18, the carrier signal is rectified, smoothed, and converted into DC power. The capacitor 212 stores the DC power from the rectifying / smoothing circuit 211. And
The accumulated DC power is supplied to each of the circuits 213 to 217. The memory circuit 214 is a non-volatile memory capable of reading and writing information, and retains the stored embedded information even when the DC power from the capacitor 212 is turned off.

Upon receiving the carrier signal from the demodulation circuit 213, the control circuit 215 reads the embedded information from the memory circuit 214 and sends it to the modulation / amplification circuit 217. The modulation / amplification circuit 217 converts the high frequency signal oscillated by the oscillation circuit 216 into
The modulated information is generated by modulating the embedded information from the control circuit 215. Then, the modulated signal is amplified and the switch 2
It is sent to the loop coil 230 via 18.

The control circuit 215 also includes a demodulation circuit 213.
When the modulated signal is received from the loop coil 230, the embedded information demodulated by the demodulation circuit 213 is stored in the memory circuit 214. When the writing is completed, the control circuit 215
The modulation / amplification circuit 217 is controlled to send a carrier signal to the loop coil 230 to indicate the end of writing.

The capacitor 220 is a loop coil 230.
Together with this, a resonance circuit is configured, and when the magnetic field component is received, the magnetic field component from the search device 100 is selected.

The loop coil 230 is an antenna wire formed in a loop and operates as an antenna. As shown in FIG. 4, the loop coil 230 is provided inside the joint portion 310 and in the circumferential direction of the joint portion 310. Since the joint portion 310 is made of synthetic resin, even if the loop coil 230 is provided inside the joint portion 310, it does not affect the transmission and reception of the magnetic field component of the electromagnetic wave. Loop coil 2
A parallel circuit of the data carrier IC element 210 and the capacitor 220 is connected between the end portion 231 and the end portion 232.

The above is the structure of the marking device 200.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

The marking device 200 is previously provided inside the joint portion 310 of the buried pipe 300. At the time of burying work, the pipe parts 320, 320 of the burying pipe 300 are connected to the arrows a, b.
The joint portion 310 is inserted and connected from the direction of (FIG. 4). The marking device 200 stores the buried information such as the pipe type of the buried pipe 300, the buried depth, the buried date and time, the coordinates of the buried position, and the buried direction in advance, or at the time of the buried work.

At a later date, when performing maintenance work on the buried pipe 300, when the operator wants to check the position of the buried pipe 300 and the buried information, the operator operates the exploration device 100 to find a carrier wave for exploring the buried pipe. Send.

In the marking device 200 of the buried pipe 300, the loop coil 230 receives the carrier wave. Since the diameter of the joint portion 310 of the buried pipe 300 is larger than that of the pipe portion 320, the diameter of the loop coil 230 is large, and the carrier wave can be efficiently received. The loop coil 230 sends the carrier signal generated by the reception to the data carrier IC element 210. The data carrier IC element 210 starts its operation with this carrier signal, and generates a modulation signal obtained by modulating the carrier signal with the embedded information stored inside. Large diameter loop coil 230
Efficiently converts a modulated signal into a modulated wave and transmits it.

When the search device 100 receives the modulated wave, it demodulates and displays the embedded information. At this time, the operator can know the position of the buried pipe in the state of the modulated wave and can check the buried information on the display.

Further, when rewriting the embedded information of the marking device 200, the operator performs an operation related to the rewriting of the exploration device 100. By this operation, the exploration apparatus 100 transmits the modulated wave modulated by the buried information.

The loop coil 230 of the marking device 200 is
The modulated wave is efficiently received, and the modulated signal is sent to the data carrier IC element 210. IC element 21 for data carrier
0 starts operation with this modulated signal. Then, the embedded information is demodulated from the modulated signal, and the embedded information is newly stored. When the writing is completed, the loop coil 230 efficiently converts the carrier signal from the data carrier IC element 210 into a carrier wave and transmits the carrier wave. The search device 100 displays that the carrier wave has been received. Thereby, the worker knows that the buried information has been updated.

As described above, the diameter of the joint portion 310 is equal to that of the pipe portion 32.
Since it is larger than 0, the loop coil 230 is connected to the joint portion 310.
If the loop coil 230 is provided, the diameter of the loop coil 230 can be increased.
As a result, the antenna efficiency of the loop coil 230 can be improved and the communication distance can be extended.

In this embodiment, the loop coil 23
Although 0 is provided inside the joint portion 310, it is not particularly limited to this. For example, the loop coil 230 is connected to the joint 310.
It may be provided on the inner surface of the.

Further, in this embodiment, the pipe portion 320 and the joint portion 310 are separated, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the joint portion 310 may be integrally provided on either of the pipe portions 320.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, the diameter of the loop coil for the antenna becomes substantially the same as the diameter of the joint portion, and the diameter of the loop coil can be made larger than the conventional one. With this large diameter loop coil, electromagnetic waves can be efficiently transmitted and received, and the communication distance between the exploration device and the marking device can be extended.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a device body.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a data carrier IC element.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing how a loop coil is attached.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a wireless transponder.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 Search device 200 Marking device 210 IC element for data carrier 230 Loop coil 300 Buried pipe 310 Joint part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An exploration device that transmits an electromagnetic wave; and a marking device that transmits a response electromagnetic wave when the electromagnetic wave is received and is attached to a joint portion of a buried pipe, wherein the marking device is the exploration device. An antenna unit that transmits and receives electromagnetic waves and that has a loop coil for transmission and reception, and a transmission signal that is operated by DC power that is a conversion of the reception signal from this antenna unit and that is modulated with embedded information stored in advance in the antenna unit. A data communication unit for sending, the exploration device, in the buried pipe marking system that demodulates and outputs the buried information when receiving an electromagnetic wave from the marking device, the loop coil of the inside and the inner surface of the joint portion. A buried pipe marking system, characterized in that it is provided on one side and in the circumferential direction of the joint portion.