Abstract: A machine for automatically welding parts which need to be assembled has detection means which include a locating telemeter capable of measuring a selected distance between the machine and one of the parts. A programmable control device is provided with a memory wherein are stored the coordinates of the passing points of a welding torch. The coordinates are distributed on a curvilinear section of a welding profile. The machine includes first calculation means for determining the location of the passage points and for defining, by circular extrapolation, a series of points defining the curves joining the passage points and corresponding to the curvilinear section, so that a shifting system matches the successive positions of the torch with the section. The invention is suitable for in situ welding, for example to produce membranes for fluid confinement tanks.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a prefabricated structure providing fluid-tight and thermo-insulated walls for a heat-insulated confinement container such as a fluid-tight reservoir for storage and/or transport of a very low temperature fluid. Said structure (1) comprised of an internal flexible and fluid-tight barrier (2), a heat insulation system (4) and an external wall (3) forming support for the structure (1), is characterized in that distribution walls (53) integral with the external wall (3) are fixed to the latter particularly by means of screws or the like (35) arranged facing holes (435) drilled in an external insulation layer (43) at a distance from the joints (63) between plates (43a) forming said layer, a fluid-tight connector (80) being sealingly arranged in each of the holes (435) and joints (63). The invention applies to the construction of structures forming fluid-tight reservoirs, for example for tankers which transport cryogenic liquids such as methane tankers.

Abstract: A buried fluid storage tank with a single fluid-tight enclosure which comprises an external concrete enclosure buried into the ground, a rigid structure with a bottom slab and possibly a covering dome as well as a fluid-tight heat-insulating envelope which defines inside of the structure a fluid loading space, whereas the external enclosure has the shape of a thick substantially fluid-tight wall, this enclosure as well as the covering dome being made integral with each other from one single piece of material and forming together with the bottom slab the stiffening structure of the tank, the invention being applicable to a confinement tank in particular for a harbor terminal for loading a liquefied natural gas.

Abstract: A device forming a heat insulating wall structure for a fluid-tight tank and comprising an interposed joint packing including on each one of its sides at least one lateral joint consisting of a flexible and expansible heat insulating material accommodated within a corresponding recess of the packing body and connected to the latter, which joint after said packing has been mounted between two adjacent panels is in free pressed bearing engagement with the neighbouring panel.