Field of the art The present invention relates to the technological field of tank trucks for the transportation of liquid or granular products, and in particular it concerns the equipment that manage the loading, unloading, cleaning, drying and inertization operations of the tanks.

International classification BOld.

State of the art It is known the use of bottles of neutral gas to manage the operations of unloading and inertization of tank trucks for the transportation of liquids. Said bottles of neutral gas must be of course located on the ground in a station by which the tank trucks to be unloaded have to stand by to be specifically connected to the service pipes and perform all the necessary operations.

In the situations that present problems of inert gas supply, tank truck already provided with a considerable number of gas bottles should be used.

Such large amount of gas bottles, on top of representing a potential hazard because of their high pressure, would also constitute an inconvenient load and burden which would inevitably lead to an increase of operational costs.

The problem to be solved is exactly to avoid the need of several gas bottles by providing the tank truck with an autonomous plant to generate inert gas. Such autonomous plant should have limited overall dimensions, an acceptable weight, low set-up and operational costs, easiness of practical application, simplicity of maintenance, absolute safety in the management of the unloading operations, reliability of the inertization system of the tank trucks leading, therefore, to a global improvement of the operational conditions.

Description The invention is now disclosed with reference to the figures of the schematic drawings attached as an unrestrictive example.

Figure 1 and Ibis represent a schematic view of the truck, on board of which is installed, in different places, an autonomous equipment for the production of inert gas.

Figure 2 shows a schematic view of a tank trailer that connects to the vehicle.

It should be pointed out that on board of the vehicle is already installed an autonomous equipment for the production of inert gas.

Figure 3 shows schematically flat chassis upon which is already installed an autonomous equipment for the production of inert gas.

Figure 4 represents the functional scheme of an autonomous equipment for the production of inert gas. It can be noticed that the reduced dimensions and the compact size of such equipment allows its easy installation on board of a truck, of a tank trailer, of a flat chassis or of a vehicle.

The schematic figures don't show the connecting conduits that are however indispensable to perform the technological process of the inertization operations of the tank trucks and for the global optimisation of the operational conditions.

In all the figures it can be observed the dimensional and structural compactness of the autonomous equipment for the production of the inert gas.

In the figures each single detail is marked follows: 1 indicates a truck vehicle.

2 indicates an autonomous equipment for the production of inert gas.

3 is a tank trailer connectable to a truck 4 indicates a flat chassis connectable to a truck.

5 indicates an air compressors which is part of said equipment (2).

6 indicates a technological system for the autonomous production of inert gas.

7 indicates the containing and protection structure of said equipment, with open panels to perform the necessary connecting, regulation and control operations of the functional conditions of the inertization process of the tanks.

8 indicates the system for the management, the regulation and the control of the technological operations of services.

The clearness of the figures highlights the possibility of setting up the equipment on board on a truck, as well as on board of the tank trailer, or on board of the flat chassis.

Said installation, which constitutes the object of the present invention, by virtue of the reduced dimensions and weight, and for the compactness of the protection and containing structure, solves all the problems currently present in this technological field and allows the perform autonomously and affordably all the unloading and inertization operations of the tanks.

The practical realization of the equipment of course allows for dimensional and structural proportioning according to the different needs of installation on vehicles of different brands and capacity.

It should be highlighted that the inventive core of the present invention consists of the autonomous installation of a compact equipment for the production of inert gas directly on board of the trucks or of the tank trailer or on a flat chassis.

The heuristic gradient of the present invention derives from specific experiences in the field of transportation with tank trucks for liquid or granular products.

Said experiences, tested globally, have highlighted the unsolved specific problems connected with the necessity of unloading under autonomous and inert conditions. Also, the inertization of the large number of circulating tank trucks is needed in geographic areas missing inert gas distribution systems.

Upon disclosure of the main original characteristic of the object of the present invention, any technician will be able to realize without inventive effort autonomous installations on board of tank trucks equipped with compact equipments for the production of inert gas having the characteristics of the present invention, as basically described, illustrated and hereinafter claimed.