JP2012225388A - Pipe repair device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method easily repairing a damaged part in a short time irrespective of a complex shape such as a narrow part or a branch part of a pipe or the diameter of the pipe.SOLUTION: When a damaged part 10a is repaired, a connector 5 is applied to the pipe 10 so that an inlet 5d faces the damaged part 10a, and the connector 5 is fixed to the pipe 10 by using a fixing tape 3. At this point, an opening and closing valve 2 is opened. Thereafter, a clearance between the connector 5 and the pipe 10 is sealed by uncured sealing resin 4. A fluid leaking from the damaged part 10a to the outside of the pipe 10 is passed through a capillary tube 1. The sealing resin 4 is then cured. Thereafter, by closing the opening and closing valve 2, an outlet 6a is closed.

Description

  The present invention relates to a pipe repair device and a pipe repair method for repairing damage caused in a pipe that conveys a pressure fluid while pressure is applied to the pipe.

  Conventionally, when repairing refrigerant pipes for air-conditioning / cooling equipment, once the equipment has been completely stopped, the refrigerant in the copper pipe is drawn out so that the refrigerant is not released into the atmosphere at the time of repair. Re-welding or replacement.

  However, in the above method, the refrigerant can be made by a simpler method because the air-conditioning / cooling equipment cannot be used during repair, the refrigerant in the piping needs to be extracted once, and it takes time to prepare the equipment. There is a need to treat leaks.

  On the other hand, in the conventional leak emergency repair method, after filling the inside of the pad with nitrile rubber, it is installed on the leaked portion of the pipe and a load is applied to the pad. Thereby, the fluid leak location of piping is repaired with the load and the elastic force of nitrile rubber which were added to the pad (for example, refer patent document 1).

JP 2003-4195 A

  The conventional leak emergency repair method as described above can be applied to repair a leaked portion generated on a flat surface, but cannot be applied to repair of a leaked portion generated in a narrow portion or a branched portion of a pipe. Further, since nitrile rubber is used, it cannot be applied to a high-temperature fluid.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and repairs a damaged portion in a short time and easily, regardless of the complicated shape such as a narrow portion or branching portion of the pipe or the diameter of the pipe. An object of the present invention is to obtain a pipe repair device and a pipe repair method.

  A pipe repair device according to the present invention includes a cylindrical connector provided with an inlet, and a flexible capillary tube body connected to the connector and provided with an outlet. A capillary tube attached to the pipe so that the inlet faces the damaged portion of the pipe and a sealing resin that seals a gap between the connector and the pipe are provided.

  The pipe repair device of the present invention attaches a capillary tube connector having a cylindrical connector and a flexible capillary tube main body to the pipe so that the inlet faces the damaged portion of the pipe. By sealing the gap with sealing resin and closing the outlet of the capillary tube body, the damaged part can be easily and quickly removed regardless of the complicated shape such as the narrow part or branching part of the pipe or the diameter of the pipe. Can be repaired.

It is a block diagram which shows the piping repair apparatus by Embodiment 1 of this invention in a partial cross section. It is a side view which shows the connector of FIG. FIG. 5 is a process diagram illustrating a procedure of a pipe repair method according to the first embodiment. It is a table | surface which shows the structure and evaluation result of Examples 1-3 of this invention. It is a table | surface which shows the structure and evaluation result of Comparative Examples 1 and 2. FIG.

Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
Embodiment 1 FIG.
1 is a block diagram showing a partial cross section of a pipe repair device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view showing the connector of FIG. In the figure, a pipe repair device (fluid leak emergency repair device) has a capillary tube (internal fluid pressure avoidance device) 1, an opening / closing valve 2, a fixing tape 3, and a sealing resin 4.

  The capillary tube 1 has a cylindrical connector 5 and a flexible column (capillary tube) 6 connected (welded) to the connector 5. The connector 5 includes a cylindrical large-diameter portion 5a, a connection portion 5b having a smaller diameter than the large-diameter portion 5a and connected to the column 6, and a taper provided between the large-diameter portion 5a and the connection portion 5b. Part 5c.

  The large-diameter portion 5a is provided with an inflow port 5d through which leaked fluid flows. The connector 5 is attached to the pipe 10 such that the inflow port 5d faces the damaged portion (fluid leakage portion) 10a of the pipe 10. The cross section of the inner surface of the tapered portion 5c is tapered. That is, the taper portion 5c has a conical inner hole.

  The first end portion of the column 6 is connected to the connection portion 5b. The second end of the column 6 is provided with an outlet 6a for allowing leakage fluid to flow out. An intermediate portion of the column 6 is wound around the pipe 10 in a spiral shape.

  The on-off valve 2 is connected to the second end of the column 6. The outlet 6 a is opened and closed by operating the opening / closing valve 2.

  The fixing tape 3 is used as necessary, and fixes the connector 5 to the pipe 10. The sealing resin 4 covers the peripheral portion of the damaged portion 10 a of the pipe 10 and the connector 5, and seals the gap between the connector 5 and the pipe 10. For example, a thermosetting resin is used as the sealing resin 4. Moreover, as the sealing resin 4, a hot melt (thermoplastic resin) can also be used.

  Next, a repair procedure for the damaged portion 10a will be described. FIG. 3 is a process diagram showing the procedure of the pipe repair method according to the first embodiment. When repairing the damaged portion 10a, the connector 5 is first applied to the pipe 10 so that the inlet 5d faces the damaged portion 10a (step S1), and the intermediate portion of the column 6 is wound around the pipe 10. Then, the connector 5 is fixed to the pipe 10 using the fixing tape 3 (step S2). At this time, the opening / closing valve 2 is kept open.

  Thereafter, the gap between the connector 5 and the pipe 10 is sealed with the uncured sealing resin 4, and the fluid leaking from the damaged portion 10a to the outside of the pipe 10a is passed through the capillary tube 1 (step S3). Then, the sealing resin 4 is cured (step S4). At this time, in order to shorten the repair time, the sealing resin 4 may be heated by a heating device to accelerate (accelerate) the curing of the sealing resin 4.

  Thereafter, the outlet 6a is closed by closing the open / close valve 2 (step S5). Thereby, the leakage of the fluid from the pipe 10 is stopped, and the emergency repair of the damaged portion 10a is completed.

  According to such a pipe repair device and pipe repair method, since the flexible column 6 is connected to the connector 5, the connector 5 is fixed to the damaged portion 10a and sealed with resin, and then the outlet 6a is closed. The operation can be performed at a position away from the damaged portion 10a, and the column 6 can be wound around the pipe 10 as necessary. For this reason, the damaged portion 10a can be repaired in a short time and easily, regardless of a complicated shape such as a narrow portion or branching portion of the pipe 10 or the diameter of the pipe 10. In addition, the pipe repair work can be easily performed even in places where many pipes 10 are arranged in a complicated manner, for example, inside an outdoor unit of an air conditioner.

  Moreover, since the connector 5 in which the inflow port 5d is provided in the large diameter part 5a larger in diameter than the connection part 5b is used, the inflow port 5d can be easily communicated with the damaged part 10a.

  Specific examples and comparative examples of the pipe repair device and pipe repair method of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 4 is a table showing configurations and evaluation results of Examples 1 to 3 of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a table showing the configurations and evaluation results of Comparative Examples 1 and 2.

(1) Substrate Piping: Copper tube (φ1 / 4 inch (6.35 mm)), manufactured by Sumitomo Metals Capillary tube: Copper tube (φ1 / 4 inch (6.35 mm)), TASCO, TA147W-2
On-off valve: Ball valve (φ1 / 4 inch (6.35 mm)), ROTEX, RP4203 (1/4 ”× 1/4” BV)
Fixing tape: Self-bonding butyl rubber tape (registered trademark) T300, manufactured by Nitto Shinko Co., Ltd. Sealing resin: 2-pack stick type epoxy putty, manufactured by Rector Seal, EP-200
Gas: Nitrogen gas (≧ 99.99%), manufactured by Iwatani Corporation

(2) Experimental equipment As a system for simulating the situation of refrigerant leakage, a leak test equipment is provided that can supply nitrogen gas at a predetermined pressure (3.5 MPa) to a copper pipe for refrigerant having a pinhole of φ50 μm via a regulator. did.

(3) Evaluation method The piping when the fluid is leaking was also set to an internal pressure of 3.5 MPa, and the fluid leakage part was repaired with the configurations shown in Examples 1 to 3 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2. When the repair is completed, the pressure is inevitably lower than the initial pressure. For this reason, the quality of the repair was evaluated based on the residual pressure remaining rate after 7 days with respect to the pressure at the time of completion of repair. The repair time was defined as the time from when the resin was kneaded.

Example 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, the connector was applied to the fluid leakage portion and fixed with a fixing tape. Thereafter, 56 g of EP-200 (Rector seal) was kneaded to seal the periphery of the connector. And after leaving to stand for 10 minutes at room temperature, 90-120 degreeC / 10 minutes heated the sealing resin with the hot blaster, and hardening was accelerated | stimulated. Thereafter, it was naturally cooled for 10 minutes, and the ball valve was closed. As a result, the durability of 7 days or more was achieved without leakage of internal gas from the sealing resin.

Example 2
In the same process as in Example 1, 56 g of EP-200 (Rector seal) was kneaded and the periphery of the connector was sealed. The ball valve was closed after 24 hours at room temperature. As a result, the durability of 7 days or more was achieved without leakage of internal gas from the sealing resin.

Example 3
In Example 2, the same repair work was performed in a system in which no ball valve was connected. The sealing resin was allowed to stand at room temperature for 24 hours, and then the tip of the capillary tube body was caulked with a pinch. As a result, the durability of 7 days or more was achieved without leakage of internal gas from the sealing resin.

Comparative Example 1
EP-200 (Rector seal) 56g was kneaded and the fluid leakage part was directly sealed. As a result, the internal gas immediately leaked.

Comparative Example 2
After fixing the capillary tube of FIG. 1 to the pipe with a fixing tape, the ball valve was closed without sealing with a sealing resin. As a result, the internal gas leaked.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Capillary tube, 2 On-off valve, 3 Fixing tape, 4 Sealing resin, 5 Connector, 5a Large diameter part, 5b Connection part, 5c Taper part, 5d Inlet, 6 Capillary column, 6a Outlet, 10 Piping, 10a Damaged part.

Claims (10)

A cylindrical connector provided with an inflow port; and a flexible capillary tube body connected to the connector and provided with an outflow port. A pipe repairing device comprising: a capillary tube attached to the pipe so as to face; and a sealing resin that seals a gap between the connector and the pipe.   The pipe repair device according to claim 1, further comprising an opening / closing valve provided on the capillary tube body and opening / closing the outlet.   The connector includes a cylindrical large-diameter portion applied to the pipe, a capillary column having a smaller diameter than the large-diameter portion and connected to the capillary tube body, and the large-diameter portion and the capillary column between the large-diameter portion and the capillary column. The pipe repair device according to claim 1, wherein the pipe repair device is provided with a connection portion having a tapered cross section on the inner surface.   The pipe repair device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the sealing resin is a thermosetting resin or a hot melt. The connector of the capillary tube having a cylindrical connector provided with an inflow port and a flexible capillary tube body connected to the connector and provided with an outflow port. A process of hitting the pipe so as to face the damaged part of the pipe;
Sealing the gap between the connector and the pipe with an uncured sealing resin, and passing the fluid leaking out of the pipe from the damaged portion through the capillary tube;
A pipe repairing method comprising: curing the sealing resin; and closing the outlet.   The pipe repair method according to claim 5, further comprising a step of fixing the connector to the pipe with a tape after the connector is applied to the pipe.   The pipe repair method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the outlet is closed by closing a valve provided in the capillary tube body.   The pipe repair method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the outlet is closed by caulking an end of the capillary tube body on the outlet side.   The piping repair method according to any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein the sealing resin is heated by a heating device in order to accelerate the curing of the sealing resin.   The pipe repair method according to any one of claims 5 to 9, further comprising a step of winding the capillary tube body around the pipe.

Images