JP2009204145A - Connector - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a connector 1 having a seal surface Pb of a pipe P abutting against a seal member 17 prevented from rusting and capable of keeping high-sealing performance. <P>SOLUTION: The connector 1 makes it possible to couple the pipe P to itself by inserting the pipe P into its coupling hole. In its coupling hole 16 of a connector body 10, the connector 1 is equipped with sealing members 17, a spacer ring 18 and a stopper ring 19. The sealing members 17 press a sealing surface Pb of the pipe P to seal a passage of the pipe P from the outside. Then, the stopper ring 19 holds the sealing members 17 to prevent the sealing members 17 from being disengaged from the connector body 10, and besides a seal lip 19d abuts against the outer surface of the pipe P to seal a gap Gp leading to the sealing surface Pb. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a connector for connecting a metal pipe.

  Conventionally, a connector described in, for example, Patent Document 1 is known as this type of connector. The connector of patent document 1 is provided with the connector main body which has a connection hole which can insert metal piping, and the retainer which connects piping to a connector main body by attaching to a connector main body and preventing piping. The connection hole of the connector body is housed by a sealing member consisting of an O-ring being stopped by a stopper ring. This sealing member seals against the sealing surface of the pipe and prevents fluid in the pipe from leaking. is doing. In order to maintain this sealing performance, the surface roughness of the sealing surface of the pipe is required to be 12.5 μm or less. Usually, rust prevention of such surface roughness is required for galvanizing on a steel pipe. Cannot be painted. As means for solving such problems, boots are provided to prevent rust caused by moisture from the outside on the seal surface of the pipe and to prevent intrusion of muddy water or the like. The boot is a rubber member that covers the gap between the connector body and the support member to which the connector is attached, and is caused by condensation that tends to occur on the surface of the metal pipe when the ambient temperature is lowered or moisture that has entered from the outside. It prevents rust on the seal surface and seal failure of the seal member made of an O-ring due to intrusion of mud.

  However, since the boot requires a support member for supporting one end of the boot, there is a problem that the boot is not versatile. Further, an O-ring can be further added to prevent intrusion of muddy water, but there is a problem that the number of parts increases.

JP 2002-71074 A

  The present invention is based on solving the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and does not increase the number of parts, has a simple configuration and excellent versatility, and does not rust the sealing surface of the pipe that hits the sealing member, and has high sealing performance. An object is to provide a connector that can be maintained.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is to solve at least a part of the problems described above, and the invention can be implemented as the following forms or application examples.

[Application Example 1]
Application Example 1 is a connector for connecting a metal pipe,
A connector body having a connection hole for inserting a pipe;
A seal member that is disposed in the connection hole and seals the pipe passage and the outside by pressing the seal surface of the pipe;
A stopper ring disposed in the connection hole for holding the seal member on the connector body;
With
The stopper ring is made of an elastic material having a bending elastic modulus smaller than that of the connector main body and larger than that of the sealing member, and is provided with a stopper main body held by the connector main body and protruding from the stopper main body. A seal rib is provided for sealing a gap from the outside to the seal surface by pressing the outer surface.

  In Application Example 1, the seal member is disposed in the connection hole of the connector body, and the seal member is pressed and assembled by the stopper ring. In this state, when the pipe is inserted into the connection hole of the connector main body, the seal member seals against the seal surface of the pipe, and the pipe passage is sealed and connected to the connector. In such a connected state, the seal rib of the stopper ring hits the outer surface excluding the seal surface of the pipe and seals the gap from the outside to the seal surface. Thereby, the sealing surface of piping is prevented from being rusted by moisture from the outside.

  The stopper ring is made of an elastic material that has a lower bending elastic modulus than the connector body and a higher bending elastic modulus than the seal member. Is effective. Therefore, it is not necessary to use a boot as described in the prior art in order to provide a rust prevention function, and the number of parts does not increase. In addition, since it is only necessary to change the shape of the stopper ring used conventionally to form the seal rib, the versatility is also high.

  As the elastic material, in addition to the function of holding the seal member on the connector main body, any material that exhibits a sealing property against moisture from the outside with the outer surface of the pipe may be used. For example, rubber or a bending elastic modulus is A thermoplastic elastomer or resin material of 50 to 2000 MPa or less can be suitably used. In addition, a steel pipe having a seal surface with a surface roughness of 12.5 μm or less and plated on the surface excluding the seal surface can be applied to the pipe. Normally, when plating such as zinc is applied to the sealing surface, it is difficult to obtain a sealing surface that exhibits sealing properties by the sealing member from the viewpoint of surface roughness. However, according to the present invention, since the gap reaching the seal surface is sealed against moisture by the stopper ring, it is not necessary to plate the seal surface.

Application example 2 is a connector for connecting metal pipes.
A connector body having a connection hole for inserting a pipe;
A seal member that is disposed in the connection hole and seals the pipe passage and the outside by pressing the seal surface of the pipe;
A stopper ring disposed in the connection hole for holding the seal member on the connector body;
With
The stopper ring
Formed from an elastic material having a lower flexural modulus than the connector body and a greater flexural modulus than the seal member;
A stopper main body held by the connector main body, and a pressed surface formed on the outer surface of the stopper main body and pressed by the end of the flange portion of the pipe are provided. As described above, the stopper ring may be a pressed surface formed on the stopper main body as long as the stopper ring is configured to exhibit a sealing property with the projecting portion of the pipe.

(1) Schematic Configuration of Connector 1 FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a connector 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state where a pipe P is connected to the connector 1. The connector 1 is for connecting the pipe P to the tube Tb, and includes a connector body 10, seal members 17 and 17 made of an O-ring, a spacer ring 18, a stopper ring 19, and a retainer 30. Yes. The seal member 17, the spacer ring 18, and the stopper ring 19 are shown partially broken. The pipe P is made of metal and is formed in a substantially round pipe shape. On the outer peripheral surface at a position spaced a predetermined distance from the front end surface of the pipe P, a flange portion Pa composed of an annularly protruding bulge portion is formed. The pipe P is formed of a steel pipe galvanized at a part thereof, that is, a seal surface Pb (see FIG. 4) sealed by the seal members 17 and 17 is formed from the flange portion Pa to the tip side. A portion excluding the seal surface Pb is a galvanized coating surface Pc. The surface roughness of the sealing surface Pb is Rz 12.5 μm or less (JIS: B0601-1994), and a sealing performance higher than a predetermined level when pressed by the sealing members 17 and 17 is ensured. Hereinafter, the connector main body 10 and the retainer 30 will be described in order.

(2) Configuration of each part of connector 1 (2) -1 Connector body 10
3 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the connector 1 to which the pipe P is connected, and FIG. 4 is an exploded sectional view of the connector 1. 3 and 4, the connector main body 10 is made of, for example, a resin and is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape. One end of the connector main body 10 is a pipe connecting portion 11 for connecting the pipe P, and the other end is a tube connecting portion 12 to which a tube Tb (FIG. 1) made of, for example, a synthetic resin is attached by press fitting. ing. Hereinafter, the following description will be given with the pipe connection portion 11 side of the connector 1 as the front side and the tube connection portion 12 side as the rear side.

  In FIG. 4, the hollow part in the connector main body 10 is formed in the 1st thru | or 4th connection holes 13-16 which make the stepped hole shape which enlarges an internal diameter in steps toward the front from back. FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the upper half of FIG. In the third connection hole 15, two front and rear seal members 17, 17 are disposed, and a resin spacer ring 18 positioned between the seal members 17, 17 is disposed. In the connector body 10, a resin stopper ring 19 is disposed across the third connection hole 15 and the fourth connection hole 16. The rear seal member 17 is prevented from coming off by a spacer ring 18, and the front seal member 17 is kept from coming off by a stopper ring 19.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the stopper ring 19 with a part thereof broken. The stopper ring 19 includes an annular stopper main body 19a, an engaging projection 19b protruding from the outer peripheral portion of the stopper main body 19a, a stepped portion 19c, and a seal rib 19d, and these are integrally molded from an elastic material. . The engagement protrusion 19b press-fits into the positioning recess 11d of the pipe connection portion 11 shown in FIG. The seal rib 19d is an annular protrusion formed in an annular shape from the front end surface of the stopper main body 19a, and is pressed against the side surface of the flange portion Pa of the pipe P. The seal rib 19d is slightly inclined toward the center side in a state where it is not pressed by the flange portion Pa.
Here, a nylon resin reinforced with a glass fiber having a flexural modulus of 5000 to 15000 MPa was used as the resin material of the connector body 10, and a rubber material having a flexural modulus of 20 MPa or more and less than 50 MPa was used as the seal member 17. In this case, as an elastic material of the stopper ring 19, for example, a rubber having a flexural modulus of 50 to 100 MPa, a thermoplastic elastomer having a flexural modulus of 50 to 2000 MPa, preferably 50 to 1500 MPa, more preferably 50 to 500 MPa, or Resin materials (polyethylene, nylon) can be used.

  1 and 2, first and second restriction flanges 21 and 22 are formed on the outer peripheral surface of the pipe connection portion 11 of the connector body 10 in parallel from the front side to the rear side at a predetermined interval. ing. The first and second restriction flanges 21 and 22 have side edges that are flattened up and down, and are formed in a substantially disk shape. In FIG. 1, a pair of left and right insertion holes 26 located in the front half portion between the first restriction flange 21 and the second restriction flange 22 are formed symmetrically in the upper half of the pipe connection portion 11. Has been. The space between the insertion holes 26 is a partition portion 11c. Further, a pair of left and right receiving holes 28 corresponding to the insertion holes 26 are formed symmetrically in the lower half of the pipe connecting portion 11. Engaging claws 29 projecting upward are formed in the upper half of each receiving hole 28. Further, between the first and second restricting flanges 21 and 22, guide restricting portions 23 are respectively formed on both sides of the side surface 11 a of the pipe connecting portion 11. The guide restricting portion 23 is a mechanism for guiding the retainer 30 in the mounting direction. Between the guide projecting portion 23a protruding from the front surface of the second restricting flange 22, the guide restricting portion 23 and the side surface 11a. The guide groove 23b is formed by separating a predetermined gap.

(2) -2 Retainer 30
The retainer 30 is made of an elastically deformable resin, and includes a retainer main body 31 formed in a U shape surrounding a part of the outer peripheral portion of the pipe connection portion 11. The retainer body 31 includes a pair of left and right retaining pieces 33, a detection piece 34, and a guide piece 37 that protrude downward from both sides of a flat plate-like substrate portion 32.
The board portion 32 is formed between the first restriction flange 21 and the second restriction flange 22 in the connector main body 10 so as to be fitted from above.
The retaining pieces 33 are formed in a long and thin plate shape that is bilaterally symmetrical and extends downward from the front end portion of the substrate portion 32. A locking groove 38 having an inverted U shape and capable of receiving the pipe P in the radial direction is formed between the retaining pieces 33. The retaining piece 33 can be inserted into the insertion hole 26 of the connector body 10 from above.
The detection piece 34 is formed to be elastically deformable in the shape of an elongated plate that is symmetrical from the left and right end portions of the front half of the board portion 32 and extends downward. Between the two regulating flanges 22, it can be slid from above to below. At the lower end of the detection piece 34, a substantially rectangular plate-shaped detection projection 35 protrudes in an opposing manner. On the inner surface side of the detection projection 35, a guide slope 35a is formed so as to be inclined toward the tip. The detection projection 35 enters the receiving hole 28 of the connector main body 10 by using elastic deformation of the detection piece 34 and can be engaged with the engagement claw 29. In this state, the tip of the detection projection 35 is It protrudes into the fourth connection hole 16 of the pipe connection part 11.

  The guide piece 37 constitutes a guide mechanism together with the guide restricting portion 23 of the connector main body 10, and is a long and thin plate shape that extends symmetrically from the left and right end portions of the substrate portion 32 and extends downward, and has a tapered tip. The retainer 30 is restricted from being inclined with respect to the connector body 10 by being inserted into the guide groove 23 b of the guide restricting portion 23.

(3) Connector 1 Connection Work (3) -1 Connector 1 Assembly Work In FIGS. 4 and 5, the rear seal member 17 and the spacer ring 18 are connected to the third connection hole 15 in the connector 1 assembly work. Insert into. At this time, the rear seal member 17 is positioned at the stepped portion with the second connection hole 14. Subsequently, the stopper ring 19 is inserted into the fourth connection hole 16. At this time, the engaging projection 19b of the stopper ring 19 is press-fitted into the positioning recess 11d of the pipe connecting portion 11, and the stopper 19 is brought into contact with the positioning step 11e of the pipe connecting portion 11 so that the stopper ring 19 is connected to the pipe connecting portion 11. To fix.

(3) -2 Connection work of connector main body 10 In order to connect the pipe P to the connector 1 configured as described above, the pipe 30 is inserted after the retainer 30 is temporarily assembled to the connector main body 10, and the retainer 30 is further inserted. This is done by pressing. That is, in FIG. 1, the retaining piece 33 of the retainer 30 is aligned with the insertion hole 26, and the guide piece 37 is aligned with the guide groove 23 b of the guide restricting portion 23. The substrate part 32 is pushed downward as shown in FIG. As a result, the retainer 30 moves in the mounting direction while restricting the inclination of the retainer 30 while the retaining piece 33 is inserted into the insertion hole 26 and the guide piece 37 is inserted into the guide restricting portion 23, so that the temporarily assembled state is obtained. In this temporarily assembled state, the vertical movement of the retainer 30 is restricted by the restraint by the receiving hole 28 of the detection protrusion 35 and the engagement between the front end portion of the detection protrusion 35 and the engagement claw 29.

  Subsequently, in order to connect the pipe P to the connector 1, the pipe P is inserted into the pipe connecting portion 11 of the connector main body 10 as shown in FIG. 8. When the pipe P is inserted into the normal connection position of the connector main body 10, the flange portion Pa of the pipe P slides while coming into contact with the guide slope 35 a of the detection protrusion 35 of the detection piece 34 in the retainer 30. Thereby, the detection piece 34 is elastically deformed in the direction in which the detection piece 34 is expanded, and the detection protrusion 35 of the detection piece 34 is shifted laterally from the engagement claw 29 of the receiving hole 28. As a result, the lower surface of the detection projection 35 is disengaged from the engagement claw 29 of the receiving hole 28, so that the retainer 30 can be moved downward. Subsequently, when the substrate portion 32 of the retainer 30 is pushed downward, the retainer 30 moves downward. Then, the detection projection 35 of the detection piece 34 descends while sliding along the side surface 11a of the connector body 10, and finally reaches the engagement end 24, whereby the detection piece 34 is elastically restored. Then, when the detection protrusion 35 is engaged with the engagement end 24, the upward movement of the retainer 30 is restricted. When the retainer 30 is moved to the retaining position, the retaining piece 33 engages with the pipe P on the opposite side of the flange portion Pa, that is, on the front side. As a result, the pipe P is restricted from moving in the removal direction, and is prevented from being removed from the connector body 10 and connected to the connector 1.

(4) Action and Effect of Connector 1 (4) -1 As shown in FIG. 5, when the pipe P is completely inserted into the normal connection position of the connector body 10, the pipe P is connected to the stopper ring 19 and the front side. The seal member 17, the spacer ring 18, and the rear seal member 17 are sequentially penetrated, and the seal members 17 and 17 press against the seal surface Pb of the pipe P, so that a high sealing performance is obtained at the connection location of the connector 1. It is secured.

(4) -2 With the pipe P connected to the connector 1, the seal rib 19d of the stopper ring 19 hits the outer surface of the pipe P excluding the seal surface Pb and seals the gap Gp between the outside and the seal surface Pb. Therefore, since moisture from the outside does not reach the sealing surface Pb that has not been subjected to rust-proof coating, it is possible to prevent rusting and to prevent a sealing failure of the sealing member 17 due to intrusion of mud. .

(4) -3 The stopper ring 19 is formed of an elastic material having a lower bending elastic modulus than the connector main body 10 and a higher bending elastic modulus than the seal member 17, thereby firmly holding the sealing member 17 on the connector main body 10. In addition to the function to perform, the antirust function with respect to the sealing surface Pb is effectively exhibited. Therefore, it is not necessary to use a boot as described in the prior art in order to provide a rust prevention function, and the number of parts does not increase. In addition, since it is only necessary to change the shape of the stopper ring 19 used conventionally to form the seal rib 19d, the versatility is also high.

(4) -4 For the pipe P, a steel pipe whose surface roughness Rz of the sealing surface Pb is 12.5 μm or less and the surface excluding the sealing surface Pb is plated can be suitably applied. . Usually, when plating such as zinc is applied to the sealing surface, it is difficult to obtain a sealing surface Pb that exhibits sealing performance by the sealing member from the viewpoint of surface roughness. However, according to this embodiment, since the gap Gp reaching the seal surface is sealed against moisture by the stopper ring 19, it is not necessary to plate the seal surface Pb.

(5) Other Embodiments The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and can be carried out in various modes without departing from the gist thereof. For example, the following modifications are possible. is there.

(5) -1 FIG. 9 is a half sectional view showing a connection structure of connectors 1B and P according to another embodiment. This embodiment is characterized by the shape of the stopper ring 19B. That is, the stopper ring 19B includes a seal rib 19Bd formed on the inner peripheral surface of the stopper main body 19Ba. The seal rib 19Bd seals the gap Gp by contacting the outer peripheral surface of the pipe P. As described above, the position of the seal rib 19Bd may be provided at any position on the outer peripheral portion of the stopper main body 19Ba as long as the gap Gp can be sealed.

(5) -2 FIG. 10 is a half sectional view showing a connection structure between connectors 1C and P according to still another embodiment. This embodiment is characterized by a seal structure between the stopper ring 19C and the pipe P. That is, a pressed surface 19Ce is formed on the front end surface of the stopper ring 19C. The pressed surface 19Ce seals the gap Gp by contacting the outer peripheral corner portion Pd of the flange portion Pa. Thus, if it is set as the structure sealed by the line contact which made one side protrusion and the other was a plane, a sealing performance can be made high.

(5) -3 As a connector applicable to the present invention, it can be used for various connectors using other connection methods of piping, for example, a connector using a retainer, without departing from the gist thereof.

It is a perspective view which decomposes | disassembles and shows the connector concerning one Example of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the state which connected piping to the connector. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the connector which connected piping. It is sectional drawing which decomposed | disassembled the connector. It is sectional drawing which expands and shows the connection location of the upper half of FIG. It is a perspective view which shows a partially broken stopper ring. It is explanatory drawing explaining the operation | work which connects piping to a connector. It is explanatory drawing explaining the connection operation | work following FIG. It is a half sectional view showing a connection structure of a connector and piping according to another embodiment. Furthermore, it is a semi-sectional view which shows the connection structure of the connector and piping concerning another Example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Connector 1B ... Connector 1C ... Connector 10 ... Connector main body 11 ... Pipe connection part 11a ... Side surface 11c ... Partition part 11d ... Positioning recess 11e ... Positioning step part 12 ... Tube connection part 13 ... 1st connection hole 14 ... 1st 2 connection hole 15 ... 3rd connection hole 16 ... 4th connection hole 17 ... Sealing member 18 ... Spacer ring 19 ... Stopper ring 19B ... Stopper ring 19C ... Stopper ring 19a ... Stopper body 19b ... Engagement protrusion 19c ... Step Portion 19d ... Seal rib 19Ba ... Stopper body 19Bd ... Seal rib 19Ce ... Pressed surfaces 21, 22 ... First and second restricting flanges 23 ... Guide restricting portion 23a ... Guide projection 23b ... Guide groove 24 ... Engagement end 26 ... Difference Recess hole 28 ... Receiving hole 29 ... Engagement claw 30 ... Retainer 31 ... Retainer body 32 ... Substrate 33 ... Detaching piece 34 ... Detection piece 35 ... Detection projection 35a ... Guide slope 37 ... Guide piece 38 ... Locking groove Gp ... Gap P ... Piping Pa ... Flange Pb ... Sealing surface Pc ... Paint surface Pd ... Outer corner portion Tb ... tube

Claims (3)

In a connector for connecting a metal pipe (P),
A connector body (10) having a connection hole for inserting a pipe (P);
A seal member (17) disposed in the connection hole and sealing the passage and the outside of the pipe (P) by pressing the seal surface (Pb) of the pipe (P);
A stopper ring (19) disposed in the connection hole (16) for holding the seal member (17) in the connector body (10);
With
The stopper ring (19)
Formed of an elastic material having a lower bending elastic modulus than the connector body (10) and a higher bending elastic modulus than the seal member (17),
A stopper body (19a) held by the connector body (10) and a gap extending from the stopper body (19a) and pressing the outer surface of the pipe (P) to reach the seal surface (Pb) from the outside. A seal rib (19d) for sealing (Gp);
Features a connector. The connector according to claim 1,
The connector is a thermoplastic elastomer or resin material having a flexural modulus of 50 to 2000 MPa or less. In connectors for connecting metal pipes,
A connector body having a connection hole for inserting a pipe;
A seal member that is disposed in the connection hole and seals the pipe passage and the outside by pressing the seal surface of the pipe;
A stopper ring disposed in the connection hole for holding the seal member on the connector body;
With
The stopper ring
Formed from an elastic material having a lower flexural modulus than the connector body and a greater flexural modulus than the seal member;
A connector comprising: a stopper main body held by the connector main body; and a pressed surface (19Ce) formed on an outer surface of the stopper main body and pressed against an end of the flange portion of the pipe.

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