There is provided a protection structure for a gas cylinder assembly comprising a gas cylinder body and a valve. The gas cylinder body includes a base and a neck to which a proximal end of the valve is connectable in use. The protection structure comprises first and second structural sections, the first section being connectable to the valve such that the second section is spaced from the valve by the first section. Further, in use, the second section is arranged to transfer impact forces to the first section, and the second section is arranged to deform with respect to the second section in response to said impact forces to reduce the peak impact force on the valve.

A system for a water supply well that incorporates a vertical well with one or more horizontally drilled collectors extending therefrom. All of the horizontally drilled collectors may be constructed using horizontal directional drilling techniques with the main drilling equipment positioned on the ground surface and thereby defining a surface port for accessing the horizontal collector. The horizontal collector may be cleaned and maintained through the surface port without requiring access through the vertical well.

A system is provided for differentiating between water usage of multiple water consumers using a common distributed water infrastructure. The system receives from a water sensor that is upstream of a plurality of appliances, signals indicative of water usage, and constructs from the signals a plurality of water event profile signatures. The system associates, based on differences between similar water event profiles, at least one water event profile signature with a first water consumer and associates a second water event profile signature with a second water consumer, and stores the water event profile signatures for the first water consumer and the second water consumer. The system constructs current water event profiles reflecting subsequent water usage in the distributed water infrastructure, and attributes a first current water event profile to the first water consumer and attributes a second current water event profile to the second water consumer.

A motorized support device for a handling system intended to handle at least one flexible pipe for transferring fluid; the support device comprises: a frame, a support borne by the frame, the support having an upper support surface for supporting the flexible pipe on the frame, and a drive member borne by the frame and able to drive the flexible pipe in two-way translation in a predetermined longitudinal direction.

A pipe diagnosis apparatus 10 includes a simulation execution unit 11 that simulates vibrations of pressure in a pipe included in piping equipment to be diagnosed, based on pipe information for specifying a configuration of the piping equipment, and a stress analysis unit 12 that calculates stress that occurs in a pipe included in the piping equipment, based on pressure vibrations acquired through simulation.

Provided herein are microfluidic circuits that include at least one device for forming a quantity of drops of a solution in a carrier fluid and at least one storage zone for storing drops produced by the microfluidic device. Such microfluidic circuits are useful, for example, for the analysis of a solution containing a biological sample.

A water control valve may comprise a balancing valve installed therein, and the balancing valve has two corresponding housing members which are configured to connect to each other to secure a locating tube and a movable valve core therein. Each of the housing members has a water inlet, and two non-return devices are respectively installed in the two water inlets. With the non-return device and the balancing valve, the water control valve is configured to balance the water pressure between cold and hot water inflows and prevent backflow simultaneously, thus ensuring the water quality.

Methods and systems of admixing hydrocarbon liquids from two or more sets of tanks into a single pipeline to provide in-line mixing thereof. In an embodiment of the in-line mixing system, hydrocarbon liquids stored in at least one tank of each of two or more sets of tanks positioned at a tank farm are blended into a blend flow pipe via in-line mixing and the blended mixture is pumped through a single pipeline. In one or more embodiments, the in-line mixing system employs a separate spillback or recirculation loop that is fluidly connected to each set of the two or more sets of tanks to control the flow of the hydrocarbon fluid/liquid from each set of tanks to the blend flow pipe. Associated methods of operating one or more embodiments of the system include regulation of spillback or recirculation loop flow rate and/or pressure to drive the actual blend ratio towards a desired blend ratio.

The present invention refers to a drinking and service water system with a connection (2) to the public water supply network, at least one supply line (4, 6) leading to at least one consumer (8), a flushing valve (10) downstream of the consumer (8) in the flow direction for draining water from the drinking and service water system, a control unit (12) connected to the flushing valve (10) in terms of control, and a first temperature sensor (18) upstream of the consumer (8) in the flow direction, the control unit (12) comprising a flushing module which determines flushing processes to the control unit (12) at specific times and/or at specific time intervals. This invention is intended to provide a drinking and service water system which, with an efficient flushing device, fulfills the hygienic requirements placed on a drinking water system. To solve the problem, a second temperature sensor (20) is arranged between the consumer (8) and the flushing valve (10) and the control unit (12) is arranged to decide whether the predetermined flushing operation is to be suspended or postponed on the basis of a temperature difference between a measured value of the first temperature sensor (18) and a measured value of the second temperature sensor (20). In a secondary aspect, the present invention provides a method for flushing such a system.

A system is provided for tracking, in a distributed water infrastructure, water usage by category. The system may comprise at least one processor configured to receive from at least one sensor associated with the distributed water infrastructure signals indicative of water usage in the distributed water infrastructure. The system may, based on the signals indicative of water usage, construct a plurality of profiles. The system may assign each profile to one of a plurality of water usage categories. The system may collect, from the at least one sensor, signals indicative of water usage for substantially all water delivered through the distributed water infrastructure in a time period. The system may construct a plurality of water usage profiles in the aggregate, encompassing substantially all water delivered through the distributed water infrastructure in the time period. The system may assign each constructed water usage profile to one of the plurality of water usage categories. The system may output, for display, water usage for the time period for each of the plurality of water usage categories.