Pipe joints or couplings – With means blocking release of holding means – Auxiliary latch
Patent
1996-03-27
1998-12-22
Arola, Dave W.
Pipe joints or couplings
With means blocking release of holding means
Auxiliary latch
285 92, 285906, F16L 5500
Patent
active
058510354
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a device for mechanically locking a coupling between two pipes.
The invention relates more particularly, but not in a limiting manner, to standardized couplings having a nipple at the end of one of the pipes, intended to be pressed into a flaring at the end of the other pipe under the effect of tightening a captive nut of one of the pipes engaging with a thread formed on the other pipe.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Several braking or locking techniques are used at present: aeronautical field, does not guarantee the mechanical holding together of the assembly. This locking system is more moral than mechanical. elastic or deformed nut, using an elastic washer or using friction. These systems either limit the assembly clearance between the thread of the nipple and the nut, or they increase the torque necessary for loosening. They do not therefore totally guarantee against the risk of the installation becoming loosened during its use.
Most of these techniques cannot be used again after a dismantling.
Another locking technique is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,819, according to which locking tabs fixed to the nipple press elastically against the nut. This technique is expensive.
Furthermore, a locking device is known from FR-A-917 287 in which a locking member slides on splines formed before the thread on the pipe carrying the thread. The locking member is biassed by a spring such that it immobilizes the nut carried by the other pipe. This device is not compatible with the standard couplings since it requires the provision of splines between the thread and the actual piping. The total length of the coupling is modified by this and the total cost is very high. The device according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,398 is of the same type but has the additional disadvantage that the splines of the locking member must be strong because they also serve to transmit the tightening torque.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,482, the nut and the hexagonal comformation of the other pipe are used to rotationally immobilize locking parts which fit over them. The hexagonal conformations of the pipe are therefore no longer accessible for the tightening operation. To overcome this, the locking parts have external hexagonal conformations. The radial dimension is increased by the locking parts, which must furthermore transmit the tightening torque.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of the present invention is therefore to propose a locking device for a pipe coupling which is effective, economical and compatible with many standards, without substantially modifying the overall size of the coupling.
According to the invention, the device for mechanically locking a coupling between two pipes terminated by sealing conformations, a first of the pipes carrying a thread or the like before its sealing conformation and the other pipe carrying a rotary nut for cooperating with the thread or the like, the locking device comprising a locking element which is longitudinally movable with respect to the first pipe, a return means biassing the locking element from a withdrawn position releasing the nut towards a locking position in which, when the two pipes are coupled, a locking shaped portion of the locking element cooperates with a complementary shaped portion of the nut, and retaining means to prevent the locking element from rotating in the sense of unscrewing the nut with respect to the first pipe when the locking element is in the locking position, is characterized in that the retaining means provide retention of the locking member with respect to a support member intended to be permanently fixed to the first pipe and extending around the thread, with a sufficient radial distance between the support member and the thread to allow the nut to cooperate with the thread.
The support member which is positioned around the thread has the double advantage of increasing neither the overall size in the lengthwise direction nor in most cases the overall bulk in the radial direction of the pipe, a
REFERENCES:
patent: 4655482 (1987-04-01), Myers et al.
patent: 4940260 (1990-07-01), Odriozola
patent: 5083819 (1992-01-01), Bynum
patent: 5186501 (1993-02-01), Mano
patent: 5188398 (1993-02-01), Parimore, Jr. et al.
patent: 5348349 (1994-09-01), Sloane
Barre Bernard
Marc Jean-Pierre
Arola Dave W.
JPB Systeme
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