Joints and connections – Rod side to plate or side – Crossed rods
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-14
2001-05-08
Kim, Harry C. (Department: 3629)
Joints and connections
Rod side to plate or side
Crossed rods
C403S398000, C403S385000, C248S065000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06227757
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to a device for connecting together a first tube of circular cross-section with axis X, acting as a support, and a second tube forming a supported pipe, of circular cross-section with axis Y, these two tubes being placed at approximately 90° from one another.
More specifically, the invention relates to a device allowing a tube arranged horizontally or inclined, this tube constituting a pipe through which a fluid flows, such as a heat-transfer fluid or a radioactive fluid, to be attached to a support placed at approximately 90° from this tube, this support preferably being arranged horizontally.
For specific applications, such as connecting pipes to support elements, the pipes in particular being intended for the flow of utility fluids such as heat-transfer fluids and/or radioactive fluids in nuclear installations for example, it is necessary for the connecting device to display a particularly good resistance to earthquakes, for it to allow a support element and tubes of different diameters to be connected, and for the way in which the said connecting device is mounted to be as easy and reliable as possible.
Usually, to support pipes, these pipes generally being grouped in horizontal, vertical or inclined rows, use is made of standard open sections. For the use of such sections to give sufficient earthquake resistance, these open sections connected together into a support framework have to have a very large cross-sectional area or be strengthened by the addition of a flat section which closes them.
It will be understood that, in an installation that has, for obvious safety reasons, to be able to withstand earthquakes, it is necessary for a connecting device designed to offer satisfactory inertia, particularly in torsion, to be incorporated.
The present invention provides a connecting device which exhibits good resistance to earthquakes, is easy to assemble and allows two elements which have different-sized cross-sections to be connected together.
In order to achieve this objective, according to the invention, the connecting device comprises:
an approximately flat, advantageously parallelepipedal, base placed between the two tubes and pierced with at least two holes;
first adjustable-tightness means of joining together one of the tubes and the said base; the first joining means partially surrounding at least a portion of this tube and interacting with the holes; and
second means of joining together the other tube and the base; the second joining means partially surrounding at least a portion of this other tube and interacting with the holes and with the first joining means.
It will be understood that by virtue of the use of the same holes in the base for mounting the first joining means and the second joining means, each of these partially surrounding at least a portion of one of the tubes, there is good attachment and good cohesion of the connecting device according to the invention, which thus has satisfactory inertia to withstand earthquakes.
Furthermore, the use of tubular supports strengthens the symmetry of fitting between the support and the pipe and allows the pipe to be inclined about its support at will.
According to a preferred embodiment, the first joining means comprise at least one yoke comprising a flat U-shaped hoop partially surrounding one of the tubes and the ends of which are in contact with or close to the base, and a clamping hoop gripping the flat hoop over its entire external periphery, each end of the clamping hoop passing through the base through one of the holes and having means for tightening the said clamping hoop with respect to the flat hoop and the second joining means comprise at least one flat collar, each of the ends of which is attached to the base at one of the holes by means of the corresponding end of the clamping hoop.
Furthermore, provision is preferably made for each of the ends of the flat collar to form a joining lug which comprises an opening intended to be placed facing a hole in the base.
According to a preferred embodiment, the means for tightening the clamping hoop of the first joining means comprise screw threads intended to pass through the base through the holes and to interact with tightening nuts.
According to an advantageous alternative form:
the flat collar of the second joining means is in the shape of an &OHgr; (it has a central part in the shape of a U to the ends of which joining lugs, preferably rectangular and flat, are connected, preferably at approximately 90°);
the base has four holes passing right through it in a direction parallel to the Z axis; the X, Y, Z axes which are orthogonal to each other in pairs, denoting, respectively:
the axis of the support tube;
the axis of the supported pipe;
an axis orthogonal to the said axes of the support tube and of the supported pipe;
the connecting device has two yokes and two flat collars.
In the context of this advantageous alternative form, the said holes (in the base), yokes and collars are preferably arranged symmetrically; the planes (X,Z) and (Y,Z) then forming planes of symmetry of the device.
It will be understood that this preferred embodiment leads to a symmetric structure allowing the assembly to be better anchored, that there is then the possibility of having or not having the various elements clamped at the time of assembly and the possibility of varying the inclination of the connecting device to suit the slope of the pipe and/or of the support.
As a preference, the connecting device is used to support pipes on a horizontal support, but it will be understood that the connecting device according to the invention also allows other configurations such as the connection of a horizontal or slightly inclined (the angle of inclination being, for example, 2°) pipe to a support tube arranged vertically or alternatively connection between a pipe and a support tube which form between them a plane oriented in any direction, provided that the pipe and the support tube make an angle of approximately 90° between them.
The connecting device according to the present invention is advantageously, but not exclusively, used for connecting pipes intended for the flow of utility fluids and/or radioactive fluids in a gallery or cell of the nuclear industry, to tubular support elements.
The connecting device according to the invention may be produced in various alternative ways so that it will either allow a relative movement of translation between the supported pipe and the support tube (longitudinal guidance, transverse guidance, or both at once) or will fully lock the supported pipe and support tube together. For that, in the context of the preferred embodiment of the connecting device of the invention, the dimensions of the flat hoop in particular are modified, these dimensions governing whether or not the yoke is clamped around the tube (support or supported pipe): a flat hoop with dimensions that exceed the diameter of the tube surrounded creates slack and allows the tube surrounded by the yoke comprising this flat hoop to be free to move. If a possibility of movement between the flat collar and the tube it surrounds is desired, then an additional piece or spacer piece which moves the end of the flat collar away from the base and creates slack between the base and the tube surrounded by this flat collar, is provided. It is also possible to surround the support tube with the yoke and the supported pipe with the flat collar or, conversely, to surround the support tube with the flat collar and the supported pipe with the yoke.
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Delouvee Bernard
Vernerey Alain
Compagnie Generale des Matieres Nucleaires
Kim Harry C.
Wolf Greenfield & Sacks P.C.
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