Oceanographic method for lifting loads collected at a big depth, especially polymetallic nodules

摘要

Mechanical method for the independent lifting of underwater loads collected at great depths and forming, with their lashing, an extremely long, flexible unit. To this unit is attached an inflatable bladder designed to occupy a considerable volume under atmospheric pressure but in a shrivelled state under the ambient hydrostatic pressures which prevail at great depths, the said bladder being equipped with a pressurizing device capable of supplying to it, on receipt of a triggering control, a gas under a pressure higher than the said ambient hydrostatic pressures in order to cause the said shrivelled bladder to inflate and to begin to rise, the bladder then gradually inflating more and more as it rises. Application to the mining of polymetallic nodules present on deep sea beds. IMAGE