Pipe joints or couplings – Packed – Wedge
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-31
2001-05-15
Luu, Teri Pham (Department: 3627)
Pipe joints or couplings
Packed
Wedge
C285S369000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06231090
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a tubular joint for connecting tubes or pipes to each other.
In the prior art of the present invention, a tubular joint for connecting tubes to let fluid flow such as air piping or water supply pipes or for connecting tubes to contain cables such as electric wires or the like comprises a joint body and connecting ports formed on both ends of the joint body, each of which connecting ports has an inner diameter substantially equal to an outer diameter of the tubes to be connected. To connect the tubes to each other, the tubes are coated with adhesive agent over the outer then inserted into each of the connection ports.
However, when the tubes disposed within a narrow space such as a recess behind a wall are connected by this tubular joint, the connecting work has not been efficient because the coating work of Further, it has been difficult to apply the adhesive agent all over the outer periphery of the tube, so that the tubes can not always air tightly connected to each other.
As a connecting method which does not use an adhesive agent, it is known to heat and melt one end of the tube inserted in the connection port. However, this method requires high skill because it is necessary to heat all of the connecting area uniformly, so that the connecting work using this method is also difficult and time consuming.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The applicant of the present invention proposed a tubular joint in Japanese patent application No. 326097/1996 in order to solve the above mentioned defects in the prior art. The tubular joint includes a fall-out preventing member, a cam body and a pressing member provided on a connection port thereof having an inner diameter substantially equal to an outer diameter of a tube.
The fall-out preventing member comprises a ring-like plate with a width substantially equal to that of the end surface of the connection port, which ring-like plate is engaged with the end part of the connection port. The ring-like plate is provided with a number of fall-out stoppers extending in the axial direction from the inner peripheral edge thereof. The fall-out stoppers are formed to be elastically deformable, having a claw on each end thereof which claw is bent in centrifugal direction and then bent in centripetal direction.
The cam body has a ring-like part inserted in the connection port so as to be axially movable therein. The ring-like part has a cam surface on the inner area of the inside end which cam surface has circular sections of which diameters are gradually increased in the inserting direction. Further, the ring-like part is provided with contact parts on the outside end thereof so that contact parts may extend outward through respective notched parts formed on the fall-out preventing member and may be located between the mutual fall-out stoppers.
The pressing member is adapted to make the contact parts of the cam body move from a release position where the contact parts are projected out of the connection port to a pressing position within the connection port in the condition that the end part of a tube to be connected has been inserted in the connection port.
The operation of this tubular joint is as follows. In the condition that the pressing member has been moved to the release position, the end part of the tube to be connected is inserted into the connection port. Then, the pressing member is moved to the pressing position and thereby the cam body is moved into the connection port. As a result, the cam surface makes the fall-out stoppers elastically deform and the claws are stuck against the outer surface of the tube.
However, in this tubular joint, the fall-out preventing member was made of metallic material, so that the manufacturing cost was high. Also, in this tubular joint, when the tubes were reused as raw material for synthetic resin after withdrawal of the tubes, it was necessary to remove the fall-out preventing members from the joint body and this work cost much labor, so that the efficiency of reuse was inferior.
Accordingly, the present invention has been developed in order to solve the above mentioned defects and an object of the present invention is to provide a tubular joint which is capable of connecting tubes to each other with high air tightness.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a tubular joint which can be manufactured in low cost.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a tubular joint which has a superior efficiency of reuse when the tubes including the tubular joints are reused as raw material for synthetic resin.
To accomplish those objects, a tubular joint adapted to connect a pair of pipes is formed by a joint body made of a synthetic resin having a pair of connection ports integrally formed on respective sides thereof.
An engaging groove is formed around an axial line on an outside circumferential surface of each of the connection ports, and a synthetic resin-made fall-out preventing member is fixed at an end portion of each of the connection ports. An outside cylindrical portion of each of the fall-out preventing members has a tapered surface adapted to enable the fall-out preventing members to be press-fitted onto the respective connection ports, and includes a plurality of engaging portions that are engaged with the engaging groove formed around the axial line on the outside circumferential surface of each of the connection ports as the fall-out preventing members are press-fitted thereon. And an inside cylindrical portion of each of the fall-out preventing members extends toward a center of the connection ports in an inclined manner, and includes a plurality of fall-out stoppers whose tip ends are shaped so as to be engaged in a groove portion formed around an axial line on the outside circumferential surface of the respective pipes to be connected as the pipes are inserted and fitted in the connection ports.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4146254 (1979-03-01), Turner et al.
patent: 4421347 (1983-12-01), Kantor
patent: 4810009 (1989-03-01), Legris
patent: 5681062 (1997-10-01), Fukao et al.
patent: 60310 (1982-09-01), None
patent: 1236907 (1971-06-01), None
patent: 1312782 (1973-04-01), None
patent: 1477074 (1977-06-01), None
patent: 2075141 (1981-11-01), None
patent: 1-206196 (1989-08-01), None
patent: 10-153287 (1998-06-01), None
Fukao Hitoshi
Matsuura Hideo
Ozaki Osamu
Frishauf, Holtz Goodman, Langer & Chick, P.C.
Kunimorikagaku Co. Ltd.
Luu Teri Pham
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