Fluid handling – Systems – Flow path with serial valves and/or closures
Patent
1992-12-04
1994-11-29
Schwadron, Martin P.
Fluid handling
Systems
Flow path with serial valves and/or closures
2511491, 277205, 285109, 285379, F16L 3728
Patent
active
053680707
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
COMMENTARY ON PRIOR ART
French specification No. 1036551 (of which a translation is not available and of which there is no known equivalent) describes a domestic water pipe coupling. It is not intended for high pressure, subsea use and contains no self-sealing valves. It is not intended to provide a make and break coupling composed of male and female couplers. It shows a pipe which fits loosely inside a T-piece with a seal between the pipe and the T-piece maintained in position by an intermediate pipe section 7.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,470 is the first known patent which concerns subsea couplers and which includes a metal to metal seal. The seal is a V-section ring 55 illustrated in FIG. 2. This form of seal is intended to provide an axial seal between the axial end face of the male coupler and an axial face of the female coupler. It corresponds to neither of the principal seals employed in the applicants coupler and has the particular disadvantage that the seal can be damaged if the insertion force is too great and the further disadvantage that when the couplers are disengaged, the V-seal can be lost.
British specification No. 2183310 is the British equivalent of U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,859 referred to on page 2 of the application. The patent describes the use of a C-section annular metal seal 23 which forms a radial seal between the female coupler and the periphery of the male coupler when the two couplers are mated and their poppet valves mutually open to allow fluid flow between the couplers. The C-section seal is kept in place in a recess in the body of the female by a retainer 28 that fits into the bore of the female and is itself maintained in position by a spring clip 29.
The seal 23 in GB-2183310 fulfils a purpose similar to that of the seal 31 in the preferred embodiment described in the present application. GB-2183310 describes a further, O-ring seal 30 which is disposed in a recess in the retainer aforementioned and which can engage the periphery of the male coupler as the latter is mated with the other coupler. This type of O-ring can be displaced by either vacuum suction or the inrush of water when the male coupler is disengaged from the female coupler, as specifically discussed on page 2 of the instant application. The applicants improved seal and retaining means for it provide significant improvement over the seal system described in GB-2183310.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,726 shows a subsea coupler with male and female parts of a configuration broadly the same as GB-2183310. In the coupler described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,726, the radial C-section metal seal is not retained in a recess in the body of the female coupler but is instead located in a floating ring 102 either at the inner periphery of this ring or the outer periphery of the ring. In the former of these positions the C-section seal can engage the male coupler peripherally but in the second of the two positions the C-seal is actually disposed between the floating ring and the external sleeve 80 and does not provide a seal for the male coupler.
In this coupler there is an additional backup O-ring seal 90 which is disposed in a recess in the sleeve 80. This O-ring seal has the same disadvantages as that provided in GB-2183310.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,538 describes a subsea hydraulic coupler of the same general character as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,726 and GB-2183310. As is best seen in FIG. 4, the seal system comprises a metal C-section annular `radial` seal 78, which fulfils the same general purpose as the similarly shaped seal in GB-2183310. Also, like the coupler shown in GB-2183310, the outer retaining sleeve supports an elastomeric O-ring 90 which can provide a radial seal around the periphery of the male coupler.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an embodiment of a male coupler (or "probe") according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an embodiment of a female coupler (or "receiver") according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the female coupler as shown in FI
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patent: 4586537 (1986-05-01), Takahashi
patent: 4694859 (1987-09-01), Smith, III
patent: 4709726 (1987-12-01), Fitzgibbons
patent: 4768538 (1988-09-01), Mintz et al.
patent: 4834139 (1989-05-01), Fitzgibbons
FSSL Limited
Lee Kevin L.
Schwadron Martin P.
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