Installation for monitoring gas cylinders

[0043] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an example of a monitoring device 1 for a gas tank 3 . The subassembly comprises an actuatable functional unit 5 adapted to perform a predetermined task related to said gas tank 3, namely to monitor, for example, the expiration date of the product contained in the gas tank 3 or the date of the next hydraulic test of the gas tank, And an alarm is triggered once one of these dates is exceeded.

[0044] To this end, the gas tank 3 comprises an information medium 7 in the form of a barcode marking 9 applied to the cavity 11 of the gas tank 3 .

[0045] The bar code identification 9 includes various information items about the gas tank 3, compiled according to known coding methods. This information includes not only the aforementioned deadlines, i.e. the expiry date and the date of the next hydraulic test, but also, for example, a number or code used to identify the cylinder, the type of gas contained in the cylinder, the nominal quantity...

[0051] 2 and 3 show another embodiment of the device 1 . According to this embodiment, the task involving the gas tank 3 to be performed by the functional unit 5 involves monitoring an area, for example in a safe area of ​​a nuclear power plant, to prevent the gas tank 3 containing dangerous products, such as flammable products, from intervening in this area.

[0052]For this purpose, the information stored on the information medium 7 includes in particular the type of product contained in the gas tank 3 . Advantageously, the information medium 7 is made as an electronic identification 29 and the reading means 13 do not comprise the barcode reader 15 of FIG. 1 but comprise means 31 for passing radio waves emitted by the electronic identification 29 adapted to receive the information.

[0053] Electronic identification is known per se and is sold eg by the company GEMPLUS (Gemenos, France). The electrical autonomy of such an electronic identification is generated by a battery ...

[0060] FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of the device 1 , in which the tasks performed by the functional unit 5 relate to the transfer of gas cylinders, in particular the assignment of the transfer to a user requesting the transfer.

[0061] To this end, the information recorded on the identification 29 includes in particular the identification number of the gas tank and an item code indicating the type and quantity of the items contained in the gas tank 3 .

[0062] In order to be able to accompany a transporter during his / her work, the functional unit 5 is portable and compact on a vehicle transporting gas tanks. It comprises means 51 for recording information concerning said task to be performed. In more detail, the recording means 51 comprise a means 52 for determining the geographical position of the unit 5 , for example of the “differential GPS” type. Such a device 52 known per se outputs the geographic position of the unit 5 with an accuracy of approximately 1 m.

[0063] I...