GB1194496A - Flexible Tube Coupling - Google Patents

Abstract

1,194,496. Pipe couplings. R. O. CHAKROFF. 19 Aug., 1968, No. 39497/68. Heading F2G. In a coupling for connecting and sealing a pair of fluid pressure conducting tubes 25, 26 arranged in end-to-end relationship and having external beads 27, 29 adjacent the ends thereof and external surfaces of substantially uniform diameter on the distal sides of the beads, there are means for holding the tubes to limit longitudinal displacement thereof comprising a rigid cylindrical sleeve 16 surrounding the beaded end portions of the tubes and formed with internal, circumferential grooves 21, 22, and resilient split rings 23, 24 surrounding the distal sides of the tubes, the rings in the relaxed condition thereof resiliently tending to adjust to a position of smallest possible diameter and thus tending to hug the associated tube tightly but being expanded and partially positioned in the grooves when the tubes are moved apart to the limit of movement thereof and when then contacted by the side of the external beads of the tubes opposite to the ends of the tubes. There is also means for sealing the ends of the tubes against leakage comprising a cylindrical coupling member 12 having an annular internal flange 14 and an external screw-thread 15 and a nut 13 forming a complementary coupling member and having an internal screw-thread 17 and an extension 18 formed with an annular internal flange 19, metallic washers 32, 35 between the flanges 14, 19 and the adjacent ends 33, 36 of the sleeve 16; and resilient 0-rings 34, 37 positioned between the washers and the split rings and engaging the tubes and sleeve. The washers may be split and resilient and include, as may the split rings, springs positioned in grooves therein. The members 12, 13 may be formed with openings for visual inspection of the interior of the coupling and locked together by a wire passed through the openings. In modifications, (a) the grooves 21, 22 each have a tapered side and the rings 23, 24 are each formed with a skirt which is forced into engagement with the tapered side of a groove; (b) the split rings 23, 24 are replaced by integral, annular flanges of a split sleeve formed in three sections and held together by wire springs inserted and secured in grooves in the flanges, the sleeve when expanded by outward axial movement of the tubes being locked in an internal circumferential groove of the coupling member 12; and (c) the sleeve is screw-threaded at each end for the reception of a pair of nuts and the split rings, which have a substantially triangular crosssection, may comprise a number of arcuate segments held together by a circular spring.