WEST MELBOURNE, Fla. — Large Inflatable Rubber Plugs have been in use in large-scale infrastructure projects since at least the early 1920’s, when they were used in large cities to isolate and empty sewer sections to enable repairs avoiding excavation. Storm drainage pipelines, sanitary sewer lines, and low-pressure underground pipelines do not have valves or spectacle flanges to block fluid flow in the line. Blocking these lines and permitting access to them without the need for expensive, maintenance-intensive valves and flanges so that the pipeline becomes accessible for inspection, maintenance, or modification proved somewhat difficult.

Now, one century later, such systems, i.e., collapsible bladders or plugs inserted into sewer or industrial pipelines and inflated to create a dam or a block, are used in nearly all infrastructure sectors, from deep sea platforms to hydroelectric facilities, to overflow and miscellaneous sewers as well as the whole land based petrochemical sector.