GB991914A - Tube connecting members - Google Patents

Abstract

991,914. Tube connectors. FOSTER WHEELER Ltd. Oct. 18, 1963 [Oct. 24, 1962], No. 40293/62. Heading F2G. [Also in Division F4] A tube connector 12 comprises a base plate 14 having formed in one of its faces an opentopped groove 16 which does not extend to the edge of the plate and a closure plate 18 adapted to be fixed to the base plate and having in it holes communicating with the groove so that tubes 10 fixed to the closure plate in communication with the holes will be in communication with each other through the groove. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, tube connectors 12 are connected by tubes 10, forming a two-dimensional cluster, and as the tube connectors are arranged their grooves are off-set by one tube pitch with the result that each tube 10 is put into series connection with an adjacent tube, the circulating fluid entering by a hole 24 in one base plate and leaving by a hole 24 in the other base plate. The ends of the tubes are welded to tubular studs machined on the plates 18 and counterbored to receive the ends of the tubes, this construction allowing the tubes to be close together and so being advantageous for heat exchange. Grooves may be arranged to put any number of tubes in series connection with an equal or different number of tubes, or to connect tubes in parallel. The base plate, instead of having grooves, may have a depression of other geometrical shape, e.g. triangular (Fig. 7, not shown), in which two tubes are put in communication with a third. In an embodiment illustrated in Fig. 4 (not shown) a composite heat exchange unit comprises three clusters of tubes and connectors, the end two clusters each having nineteen tubes connected in series, the central cluster having nineteen tubes connected in parallel. The inlet and outlet manifolds of the heat exchange unit require adequate wall thickness for the pressure, and the tube pitch in the manifold may be less than the tube pitch in the cluster. To accommodate this difference the tubes may be bent and spacers used as disclosed in Specification 991,915. A base-plate for connecting 19 tubes in series, wherein the grooves are so arranged that tubes fixed to a closure plate having pairs of holes communicating with the opposite ends of each groove will be uniformly pitched and will form a hexagonal cluster is illustrated in Fig. 3 (not shown). Specification 934,485 also is referred to.