Compound sample extraction apparatus

{
  "publication_number": "US9416654B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Compound sample extraction apparatus",
  "abstract": "Disclosed is a complex sampling apparatus. The complex sampling apparatus includes a main sampling unit having a predetermined weight to be sunk to sea floor and inserted into the sea floor in order to collect a sample including a sediment; one or a plurality of sub-sampling unit disposed at a side of the main sampling unit to detect that the sub-sampling unit arrives on the sea floor and to scrape a predetermined amount of the sample from a surface of the sea floor; and an image acquiring unit installed to the main sampling unit to acquire an image of the sea floor.",
  "claims": [
    "1. A complex sampling apparatus, comprising: a main sampling unit having a predetermined weight to be sunk to sea floor and inserted into the sea floor in order to collect a sediment-including sample; one or a plurality of sub-sampling units disposed at a side of the main sampling unit; and an image acquiring unit installed to the main sampling unit to acquire an image of the sea floor, wherein the one or a plurality of sub-sampling units includes: an extension frame extending from a side of the main sampling unit; a trigger disposed on the extension frame, the trigger configured to receive an external force through contact with the sea floor to detect that the sub-sampling unit arrives on the sea floor; and a pair of grabs formed in a plate shape having a first end hinged to the extension frame, and wherein second ends of the pair of grabs are connected to each other through a mesh net configured to scrape a predetermined amount of a sample from a surface of the sea floor.",
    "2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the main sampling unit includes: a weight connected to a wire wound by an external force; a sample box installed to a bottom end of the weight and having an opened bottom end to temporarily store the sediment-including sample; a spreader hinged to the weight and having one end connected to the wire and an opposite end tightly sealing an opening of the sample box; and a support frame to support the weight, the support frame having a lower end landed on the sea floor.",
    "3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the sub-sampling unit disposed at the side of the main sampling unit further includes: an elastic member to provide an elastic force in a direction allowing the pair of grabs to be closed to each other; and a fixing member hinged to the extension frame to fix the grabs to allow the grabs to be away from each other, wherein the trigger is disposed in an upright state elevated on the extension frame and extending from a side of the support frame, and wherein the trigger releases a fixed state of the fixing member by using the wire when a bottom end of the trigger receives the external force through contact with the sea floor.",
    "4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the fixing member includes a fixing protrusion inserted into a fixing groove formed on a circumference of one of the grabs, the trigger includes a roller rotated on a top end of the trigger, and the roller is connected to the fixing protrusion through a wire.",
    "5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the sub-sampling unit includes a supplementary weight storage unit which is detachably coupled to the sub-sampling unit and stores a predetermined amount of a heavy material, and the supplementary weight storage unit includes a rotational door to open or close the supplementary weight storage unit in cooperation with the elevation operation of the trigger.",
    "6. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the extension frame is detachably coupled to the support frame.",
    "7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the extension frame includes a multi-stage pipe, a length of which is adjustable in a side direction.",
    "8. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the weight includes a plurality of unit weights different from each other, and its weight is adjusted by adjusting a number of the unit weights."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "The present invention relates to a sampling apparatus, and more particularly, to a complex sampling apparatus capable of simultaneously collecting a sample from the same area of the sea floor in a free-fall type and a box type.\n\nIn general, a specific type of sampler has been widely used to explore for a manganese nodule.\n\nSince the manganese nodules are distributed over a wide area of a deep sea floor, a free-fall grab (FFG) is used to reduce the time taken to collect a sample, and to accurately conduct a statistical analysis and a sample analysis.\n\nSince the FFG is dropped into sea without any wires connected to a research ship, several FFGs may be simultaneously used at one fixed point. The FFG has a sampling time shorter than that of a box corer (BC).\n\nHowever, the FFG can only recover the manganese nodules scattered in a surface layer, but cannot collect the manganese nodules mixed with sediment.\n\nEven when collecting manganese nodules on a surface layer, due to an error of a machine operated to recover the manganese nodules through the FFG, manganese nodules having large sizes may be gained. In addition, if a manganese nodule lodges at an edge of a sample collecting net of the FFG, since the net is not fully closed, a small size of a manganese nodule may be lost while the FFG is being recovered to the surface of a sea.\n\nOne example of the related art is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-1046577 (issued on Jun. 29, 2011). A collecting apparatus disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-1046577 is capable of sampling each layer of bottom seawater near seabed.",
  "cpc": [
    "E21B 49/025",
    "E21B 49/02",
    "G01N 1/04",
    "G01N 2001/1093"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "E21B 49/02",
    "G01N 1/04"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology KIOST"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Gun-Chang Lee",
    "Dong-jin Ham",
    "Sang-Bum Chi",
    "Kyeong-Hong Kim"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2012-08-03",
  "publication_date": "2016-08-16",
  "grant_date": "2016-08-16",
  "priority_date": "2011-08-11",
  "application_number": "US-201214233695-A",
  "family_id": "47669049",
  "cited_by_count": 2,
  "citations": [
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    "KR100727590B1",
    "KR100732395B1",
    "US8109223B2",
    "KR101046577B1",
    "KR20110088461A",
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    "US8191436B2"
  ]
}