Patent ID: 8915691

Claim:
In a standard 20-foot ISO intermodal shipping container having a plurality of walls including a first pair of parallel longitudinal walls and a second pair of parallel transverse walls, with said second pair of parallel transverse walls perpendicular to said first pair of parallel longitudinal walls, with one wall of said pair of transverse walls having a door disposed thereupon, and also having a floor and a roof perpendicular to said plurality of walls, a frac sand transporting apparatus comprising: a first plurality of input ports disposed atop said roof with each of said input ports coupled with a first output pipe located in situ at a frac sand processing facility; a brace and truss framework enclosed within said standard 20-foot ISO intermodal rectangular shipping container and affixed to said plurality of walls, said floor and said roof, for reinforcing the strength of said plurality of walls, said floor and said roof by said brace and truss framework; a hopper assembly disposed within and affixed to said brace and truss framework forming a sealable enclosure for receiving frac sand and/or proppant material from said first plurality of input ports, with said frac sand and/or proppant material collected and stored in a central chamber member disposed therewithin; said central chamber member disposed parallel to and longitudinally of said floor throughout the length of said ISO intermodal rectangular shipping container, and having a pair of arms forming a funnel member at a vertex thereof, with each arm of said pair of arms angled at about 31° relative to a horizontal base plate disposed therebetween and affixed at each end thereof to said brace and truss framework, to urge said sand and/or proppant material into said central chamber member, and also having a pneumatic controller fluidly interconnected with a valve apparatus and an external compressed air source; a second plurality of output discharge ports disposed upon an external transverse surface of said hopper assembly, with each said output port thereof coupled to a second discharge pipe located in situ at a well site for transfer of said sand and/or proppant material downhole from said central chamber member; said valve apparatus disposed within said hopper assembly parallel to and longitudinally of said floor throughout the length of said ISO intermodal rectangular shipping container, for pneumatically controlling flow of said frac sand and/or proppant material from said central chamber member to said second plurality of output discharge ports and, in turn, into said second discharge pipe; and said bladder-tube member cyclically inflated and deflated by a programmed circuit board contained within said pneumatic controller in order to control corresponding cyclical continuous input and discharge of said frac sand and/or proppant material.