Pipe joints or couplings – With fluid pressure seal – With separate – encased pipe-gripping means
Patent
1996-03-20
1999-06-15
Ricci, John A.
Pipe joints or couplings
With fluid pressure seal
With separate, encased pipe-gripping means
285 96, F16L 17025, F16L 1710
Patent
active
059114479
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a pipe connector, and more particularly to a connector for attachment at or adjacent the end of a plain end pipe to enable coupling of said pipe to a further pipe, pump, valve or the like.
BACKGROUND ART
It is established practice to provide connectors for plain end pipes which utilise friction rings or hardened grippers to which force is applied by means of associated nuts and bolts. However, with such arrangements, the force applied by the nuts and bolts is often only partially transmitted to the friction ring or gripper, with the result that the pressure rating of the connection is relatively low--typically between 10 and 20 bars--because of the tendency of the pipes to move longitudinally relative to one another.
It has been proposed to alleviate this problem of movement of the pipes by providing fixed anchors for the pipes at regular intervals therealong, but this is a complex, time-consuming and expensive exercise.
More recently, somewhat more efficient connectors have been introduced which utilise a non-compressible fluid such as grease to urge a gripper in the form of a serrated ring of hardened steel into contact with the pipe, such connectors further including additional sealing means for sealing between the connectors and the outer surfaces of the pipes.
For example U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,112 discloses a pipe coupling including gripping means in the form of a pair of semi-circular grippers urged by a separate sealing ring of complex configuration into gripping engagement with the pipe.
However these known arrangements suffer from various disadvantages, not the least of which is that the grippers, being ring-shaped, cannot provide effective gripping around the whole circumference of other than precisely circular pipes, while the sealing means, being separate from the grippers, require independent actuation.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
It would be desirable to be able to provide a pipe connector capable of effective attachment to off-circular as well as circular pipes.
According to the present invention there is provided a pipe connector for attachment to a plain end pipe, the connector comprising a housing for location over the pipe, an annular recess formed in the inner surface of the housing to surround the pipe, a first resilient sealing ring located in said annular recess, gripper means located in said recess radially inwardly of said first resilient sealing ring, a second resilient sealing ring reacting between the inner surface of the housing and the pipe, and inlet means feeding into said recess for a supply of fluid under pressure, the arrangement being such that, on the application of fluid under pressure to the first sealing ring, the gripper means are displaced from inoperative positions into operative positions in gripping engagement with the pipe thereby securely to connect the housing to the pipe, the second resilient sealing ring effecting a fluid-tight seal between the pipe and the housing, characterised in that the first sealing ring is disposed between the gripper means and the housing and includes radially inner and outer surfaces the inner of which extends longitudinally of the pipe, the gripper means comprising at least three arcuate segments disposed about the recess and having radially inner and outer surfaces the outer of which extends longitudinally of the pipe, the radially outer surfaces of the segments being engaged by the radially inner surface of the first sealing ring, the radially inner surfaces of the segments having formed therein, at the axial extremities thereof, an annular groove in which the second sealing ring is housed to project radially inwards of the radially inner surfaces of said segments, the arrangement being such that, on the application of fluid under pressure to the radially outer surface of the first sealing ring, the segments are displaced radially inwardly towards the pipe by said first sealing ring into operative positions in which the radially inner surfaces thereof grip the pipe, movement of said
REFERENCES:
patent: 2531922 (1950-11-01), Seamark
patent: 3572769 (1971-03-01), Lingl
patent: 3582112 (1971-06-01), Pico
patent: 3711123 (1973-01-01), Arnold
patent: 3860270 (1975-01-01), Arnold
patent: 4381114 (1983-04-01), Vanderford
patent: 4466640 (1984-08-01), Van Houtte
patent: 4676531 (1987-06-01), Martin
patent: 4805932 (1989-02-01), Imhof et al.
patent: 5456501 (1995-10-01), Reaux
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