Method and apparatus for laying pipelines on land

Claim 1

Apparatus for welding straight lengths of pipe end-to-end at a location above a trench, bending the thus formed welded pipeline to fit the trench and lowering the bent pipeline into the trench comprising a vehicle divided in two interconnectible parts on opposite sides of a transverse median plane which is perpendicular to the direction of advance of the vehicle, both vehicle parts being supported by mobile supporting means and in the non-connected condition being separately displaceable, said vehicle having a tubular loading space wherein are successively exposed a pipe piece storage rack, a series of movable pipe piece supports for aligning the tandem-disposed pipe pieces, one or more welding stations for welding together the aligned pipe pieces and a pipeline bending machine for bending the welded pipeline, said bending machine being accommodated in the rear vehicle part, comprising two supporting dies and one bending die, disposed in a supporting frame, which supporting frame is provided at the two ends with attachment flanges which are rotatable in and connectible to bearings supported in the rear vehicle part, the bending die, seen in the direction of advance of the vehicle, being positioned behind the two supporting dies so that a substantially fixed and straight centerline of the pipeline portion being welded is created ahead of the bending machine and during the bending process the moving pipeline portion is present in and behind the bending machine.