FR2733029A1 - Quick=fit pipe coupling with locking ring - Google Patents

Abstract

The coupling consists of a sleeve (2) with a female recess (24) to receive the end of a coupled pipe. It has a seal ring (7) fixed in an end groove (12) and a locking ring (8) inside a coupling ring (3) which screws onto the sleeve. The locking ring has a cylindrical section (10) and a series of independent sectors (9) formed by slits at one end and equipped with teeth (13) to engage with the coupled pipe when the coupling ring is tightened. The sleeve (2) is generally cylindrical in shape, with an inner annular stop (5) for the coupled pipe end.

Description

WATERPROOF QUICK DRIVE CONNECTION DEVICE
WITH HANGING RING
The subject of the present invention is a sealed device for rapid connection of a pipe with a hooking ring.

 The technical sector of the invention is the field of the manufacture of pipe fittings, conduits, etc ..., with sleeve, seals and locking means.

 One of the main applications of the invention is to be able to connect pipes made of rigid plastic material and in which it is desired to be able to pass optical fibers to constitute communication and / or information transmission networks.

 Such pipes must be watertight and be able to withstand an internal pressure of 6 to 7 bars to avoid any infiltration of moisture and / or other products which may be harmful to said data transmissions.

 In addition, such fittings must be able to be mounted very quickly in trenches, either between two pipes, or between a pipe and a multi-branch box.

 Many existing connections are certainly known which could meet the criteria defined above for the main application envisaged, but each having at least one drawback, either during their installation, or during possible subsequent repairs, or even during two at a time.

 One can indeed use and this is often the case to date for this type of application of the fittings developed and known in the field of the transport of fluids under pressure in pipes or tubes, and having been the subject of numerous requests. of patents.

One can quote for example the patent US N-2,177,184 of Mister
MARTIN, as well as the European patent application N-53330 of the Company
PLASSON MAAGEN MICHAEL INDUSTRIES both describing a sleeve capable of receiving in a bore of suitable dimensions, the end of the pipe to be connected and comprising, on the one hand a peripheral seal, either of the O-ring type or of conical section housed in moving parts in a ring whose approximation allows tightening, and therefore sealing on the pipe, as well as a hooking ring made of hard material comprising teeth which are anchored in the pipe by any external clamping system collar type.

 Such devices therefore require special tools and sufficient accessibility to be able to use this tool, which requires inter alia a certain space around said pipe, which is not always possible in the previous application; moreover, the implementation is quite long.

 There are also known quick connection devices, partly avoiding the above problems, in particular in the field of irrigation and watering, such as that which was the subject of the filing of a patent application. by the same applicants as the present invention, under the number FR 2.706.975, and entitled Pipe connection device for pressurized fluids and comprising a ring seal and locking ring.

 The connection device described in this document, as well as in others that may have been the subject of patent applications from other manufacturers, is certainly quick to implement and without specific tools, but it is very bulky especially in outside diameter, which is more than twice that of the pipe to be connected, which poses, among other problems during installation around the bypass chambers, in which four or five polypropylene pipes can arrive.

 Some manufacturers then tried to develop quick connection systems, with a small footprint, as the rest are those described in the US patent of Mr. MARTIN cited above, but which relate only to metal pipes and require connection parts. in the same material; in the above objective in which the present invention is situated, it is a question of connecting plastic pipes for which the fittings must be of a material of the same type, on the one hand for reasons of cost and on the other hand for questions of better resistance over time.

 However, such fittings as developed to date, certainly have a smaller footprint, but are then no longer removable; indeed, to achieve the desired objective, the manufacturers had to mold all the parts, except the seals, one on and with the other, which must be machined and moreover, which further increases the manufacturing cost ; after installation, certainly quick and without tools, if it is necessary to disassemble to intervene in the pipe or in the junction box, it is then necessary to cut the pipe or the fitting itself, which is not necessarily easy depending on the 'access that one can have, then to reassemble the installation, it is then necessary to change entire pieces of pipes or the entire fitting, since these are in one piece; such devices are also difficult to implement since it is necessary, before installation, to slide the seals into internal grooves, then, during installation, thread the fitting onto the ends of the pipes, without ability to make adjustments or adjustments, due to their non-removable one-piece arrangement, which prevents any error and / or test setup.

 The objectives of the present invention are thus to be able to produce such watertight devices for quick connection of pipes, which are both compact, at least in external diameter, or at most 60% greater than that of the tube or the pipe to be connected and at the same time removable in several parts, on the one hand simplifying the manufacture and assembly, and on the other hand allowing test fixtures and then quick repair solutions, without requiring any special tooling on site, or significant space around the pipes, and this of course having the same criteria as those mentioned above, namely the speed of connection, the self-locking and / or hooking of the pipe introduced into said fitting, tightness and resistance to compressed air pressure up to at least 6 bars, or about ten bars for example.

A solution to the problem posed is a sealed connection device of the type described above and comprising the same basic elements, as for example in the US patent
Mr. MARTIN, namely at least one sleeve having at least one female bore to receive the end of the pipe to be connected, a seal immobilized in an internal groove, and at least one ring for hooking said pipe, maintained in a recess of a female end piece, integral and separable from said sleeve; this American patent like others, indeed describes these basic elements, but for steel pipes and requiring specific tools; the present invention relates to quick couplings, without tools and which can be dismantled, essentially for pipes made of rigid plastic material, either such that the locking or hooking ring consists of a continuous cylindrical part and independent sectors uniformly distributed and attached to each other. 'a deformable manner in rotation by their base hinge with said cylindrical portion; the edges situated towards the inside of the bore, of the free ends of said sectors, constitute the inside diameter of the ring and carry anchoring teeth in said pipe oriented towards the inside of the bore in the direction of connection of this one in this one.

 Preferably, the female end piece, separable and integral with the sleeve, for this purpose comprises a female thread which is screwed onto a male thread of the external wall of the sleeve: said internal recess is then semi-open on said end piece and closed by the end of the sleeve when this and said endpiece are screwed, completely, and integral.

In a preferred embodiment, the cylindrical part of the fastening ring is an external ring of section in a plane passing through the axis XX 'of the connector, rectangular, immobilized between said recess and the end of the bore, and said sectors extending towards the inside of said ring, are of section in a plane passing through said axis
XX ', of generally triangular shape, one apex of which is integral with said ring with which it forms a hinge, another constitutes the internal diameter carrying the attachment teeth and the third abuts against the internal wall of said endpiece.

 Preferably, to allow the installation of the seal in a simple manner and then allowing its disassembly to be able for example to change it, the internal groove immobilizing said seal consists of two parts, one of which is produced by an internal shoulder of the bore and the other by the surface of one end of a cylindrical spacer slid into the part of the bore located between said shoulder and the end of this bore.

 The result is new watertight rapid pipe connection devices, such as those allowing the installation, installation and protection of optical fiber networks and meeting the above objectives, such as the description of the exemplary embodiments according to the attached figures allow to check it out.

 However, this only represents an exemplary embodiment of the invention, but has no limiting character: other embodiments are possible within the scope and scope of this invention.

 Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of a connection device according to the invention.

 Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of another type of connection according to the invention.

 FIG. 3 is a preferred embodiment of a device according to FIG. 2.

 The device according to the invention comprises at least four separable parts and assembled together, which are at least one sleeve 2 having at least one female bore 24 for receiving the end of the pipe 1 of axis XX 'to be connected, at least a seal 7, made of rubber material, immobilized in an internal groove 12, and at least one hooking ring 8 preferably made of polyacetal, of said pipe 1 held in a recess 15 of a female end piece 3 constituting the at least fourth part of the device integral with and separable from said sleeve 2.

 To allow said blocking and hooking of the ring 8 on said pipe 1 automatically, without requiring tightening of the end piece or any other external part or collar, this ring 8 consists of a continuous cylindrical part 10 and independent sectors 9, distributed uniformly and attached in a deformable manner in rotation by their base forming a hinge with said cylindrical part 10; the edges, located towards the inside of the bore 24, of the free ends of said sectors 9 constitute the inside diameter of the ring 8 and carry teeth 13 for anchoring in said pipe 1, oriented towards the inside of the bore 24 in the direction 23 of the connection of the latter therein.

 To allow on the one hand the establishment of said ring 8 inside said end piece 3, then the dismantling of the connector once hung on the pipe 1, the end piece preferably comprises a female thread 4 which screws onto a male thread on the external wall of the sleeve 2: said internal recess 15 on said end piece 3 is thus open on said end piece 3 at the base of thread 4: it is then closed when said end piece is screwed onto bore 2 by the end 14 thereof which is planar in shape.

 In the embodiment according to FIG. 1, said attachment ring 8 is of generally cylindrical shape of revolution whose sectors 9 are in continuity along the same generatrices parallel to the axis XX 'with their common cylindrical part 10; these sectors are, at their end carrying the teeth 13, but on their external face turned towards said internal recess 15, of conical shape like this is, with which they cooperate, at this end; which recess 15 is at its other end, receiving the continuous cylindrical part 10, closed by an internal rim 17 making a stop and located towards the mouth of said bore 24; said recess 15 is of greater length than the whole cylindrical part 10 continues and sectors 9 of the hooking ring 8, and leaves a determined play 16 of movement of the latter, parallel to said axis XX '.

 Thus, when threading in the direction of connection 23, the end of the pipe 1 to be connected inside said end piece 3, said hooking ring 8 is driven as far as it will stop, either directly on the end 14 of the bore 2, either as in FIG. 1, when a lip seal is used according to the description below against the face of this seal, perpendicular to the axis XX 'and turned towards the mouth of said endpiece 3, into which said line 1 is introduced.

 Said sectors 9 then pivot away from the axis XX 'by pressing the end of the pipe against the teeth 14, because the conical part of the recess 15 in this location allows them to do so, leaving the passage of this pipe until, for example, it comes against a stop 5 made a little further inside the part of the bore 2, the inside diameter of which roughly corresponds to the outside diameter of the pipe 1 and which thus ensures guiding and centering in the fitting.

 When the pipe 1 is then pulled while maintaining said connection device, either mechanically or by internal pressure, the pipe tending to move back then drives the teeth 14 and thus the hooking ring 8 until blocking, that is to say at most when its continuous cylindrical part 10 is stopped by the stop 16 at the end of the recess 15 of the female end piece 3: the internal conical part of this then pressing by wedge effect on the corresponding external surface deformable sectors 9, brings these closer to the axis XX 'and forces the teeth 14 to enter the external wall of the pipe, thus ensuring its perfect attachment, preventing it from leaving the fitting.

 According to Figure 1, said seal 7 is a lip seal and said inner groove 12, in which it is immobilized, is made up of two parts, one of which is produced at the end of said recess 15 in said end piece 3 and the other by the end 14 of the sleeve 2.

 It is also possible to install such a lip seal using a device as shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 where O-rings are shown, knowing that, in FIG. 2, the groove 12 receiving the seal, does not is not opening and requires a forced installation which is less practical and makes disassembly more difficult compared to the representations of Figures 1 or 3.

 Anyway, the lip seal is used when you are looking for a seal only inwardly outward, but if you want a seal in both directions, it is certain that only the O-ring can meet it .

 In the embodiment according to FIG. 2 or FIG. 3, the cylindrical part 10 of the assembly ring 8 is an external ring of section in a plane passing through the rectangular axis XX ′, held firmly and immobilized between said recess 15 and the end 14 of the bore, and said sectors 9, extending towards the inside of said ring 10, are of section in a plane passing through the axis XX ', of generally triangular shape, one vertex of which is integral with said ring 10 with which it forms a hinge, another constitutes the internal diameter carrying the teeth 13 and the third abuts against the internal wall of said endpiece 3.

 According to this embodiment, when the end of the pipe 1 is threaded towards the inside of said bore 2 through the mouth of the end piece 3, the end of said pipe comes to bear on the side 18 opposite the top making hinge of said deformable sectors 9 of the hooking ring 8, forcing said sectors to pivot around said hinge and to be erased to allow said pipe 1 to pass.

 When we then want to bring it out, either mechanically or by the pressure of an internal pressure, the pipe, by first backing up slightly, straightens by friction on the sides 10, said sectors 9 which rotate in reverse rotation in the direction previous around their hinges relative to the cylindrical part 10, then the vertices carrying the anchoring teeth 14 come into contact with the external wall of the pipe 1 and anchor there when the rotation continues until the third apex comes into abutment against the internal wall of said end piece 3, thus preventing the rotational movement from continuing; the teeth 14 are then well anchored in the external wall of the pipe 1, the latter can no longer move back.

 To ensure on the one hand a better penetration of the pipe 1 into said end piece 3 and a better erasure of said sectors 9, these, of general triangular section, have their sides 18 opposite to the sides forming a hinge of convex shape and their sides 19 at the peaks coming into abutment in a concave shape.

 According to Figure 3, the seal 7 can be put in place and then come out without being forced, contrary to what is shown in Figure 2, the internal groove 12 immobilizing it being made up of two parts, one of which is produced by an internal shoulder 20 of the bore 2 and the other by the surface of one end of a cylindrical spacer 11 slid into the part of the bore 2 located between said shoulder 20 and the end 14 of this bore, and which is in this part of a diameter larger than that of the part located further in the sleeve 2 and which receives the end of the pipe 1 as far as the stop 5.

 To ensure a well-defined width of said internal groove 12, necessary for an O-ring, said spacer may include a collar, at its other end than that constituting the closure of groove 12: said collar 21 coming to cooperate in abutment against a face against the end 14 of the bore 2 and closing with its other face the recess 15 receiving said hooking ring 8.

 This spacer 11 itself has an internal recess 22 allowing the sides 19, opposite the vertices coming into abutment, of the segments 9 of the hooking ring 8, to be erased when the pipe 1 enters the end piece. 3; moreover, such a recess 22 must be produced directly at the end and in the bore 2 in the context of the embodiment of FIG. 2 when there is no such spacer 11.

 According to FIG. 3, when it is desired to connect two ends of pipes, the connection device comprises two female end pieces 2 mounted at the two ends of the same sleeve 2 having two communicating female bores 24, and constitutes a double connection 6 between two ends of line 1 to be connected.

 In the case of FIGS. 1 or 2 where the device according to the invention is only shown with a single bore, this can be mounted on an elbow or other fitting, or directly on a junction box, at the inside of which several bundles of optical fibers can open, for example, in order to ensure their connection.

 When we then want to dismantle said fittings to intervene for example in said pipes 1, it suffices to unscrew the female end piece 3 and by pulling the pipe 1, we then remove all of the seals 7 and coupling rings 8 which may remain because of the teeth 13, integral with its external wall and are driven with it without damaging it, which allows reuse in this same position while keeping the same elements without moving them; we can also slide them relative to each other and then of course unhook them and disconnect them from the pipe, either to change their place or to replace them.

 To ensure said screwing and unscrewing without tools, said female end piece 3 may have on its outer wall grooves parallel to the axis XX 'for better attachment of any screwing and unscrewing means such as the hand of an operator.

The attached figures can be considered as representing the different separable parts of the device, which are at least the sleeve 2, the ring 8, the seal 7 and the end piece 3, to scale. The dimensions of these parts and their material thickness are determined and calculated at the same time
- to be able to produce said parts by molding, independent of each other and without additional machining,
- to resist the characteristics of use requested,
- to have compatible dimensions and cooperate with each other for the desired objectives,
- as a person skilled in the art can determine them according to the materials used,
- and to obtain the smallest possible external dimensions.

According to the characteristics of the invention, it is thus possible to obtain devices, the external diameters of the female end pieces 3 made for example of polypropylene, polyethylene or other polyolefins, and those of the body 6 of the sleeve 2, made of one of the same materials as these. above for the female end piece, relative to the external diameter of the pipe 1 are in millimeters from left to right respectively in the table below

<tb><SEP> 50 <SEP> 40 <SEP> 32
<tb><SEP> 60 <SEP> 50 <SEP> 40
<tb><SEP> 75 <SEP> 65 <SEP> 50
<tb> 100 <SEP> 85 <SEP> 63
<tb>
that is to say effectively values of external diameters overall of the fitting (left column) equal at most to 160% of those of the diameters of the pipes to be connected (right column), and even 150% for some.

Claims (9)

 1. Watertight axle quick coupling device XX ', comprising at least one sleeve (2) having at least one female bore (24) for receiving the end of the pipe (1) to be connected, a seal (7) immobilized in an internal groove (12) , and at least one ring (8) for hooking said pipe (1) held in a recess (15) of a female end piece (3), integral with and separable from said sleeve (2), characterized in that said ring ( 8) attachment consists of a continuous cylindrical part (10) and independent sectors, uniformly distributed and attached in a deformable manner in rotation by their base hinged with said cylindrical part (10), the edges located towards the interior of the bore (24) of the free ends of said sectors (9) constitute the internal diameter of the ring (8) and carry teeth (13) for anchoring in said pipe (1) oriented towards the interior of the bore (24) in the direction (23) of the connection.  2. Connection device according to claim 1, characterized in that said end piece (3) comprises a female thread (4) which is screwed onto a male thread of the external wall of the sleeve (2), which internal recess (15) is semi-open on said end piece (3) and closed by the end (14) of the sleeve (2), when the end piece (3) is screwed onto it.  3. Connection device according to claim 2, characterized in that said ring (8) for hooking is of generally cylindrical shape of revolution, the sectors (9) of which are in continuity along the same generatrices parallel to the axis XX ' with their cylindrical common part (10) and are at their end carrying the teeth (13), but on their external face turned towards said internal recess (15), of conical shape, as is the latter at this end, which recess (15) is at its other end, receiving the continuous cylindrical part (10), closed by an internal rim (17) making a stop and located towards the mouth of said bore (24), and of greater length than the assembly continuous cylindrical part (10) and sectors (9) of the hooking ring (8), leaving a determined play (16) of displacement of the latter, parallel to said axis XX '.  4. Connection device according to claim 3, characterized in that said seal (7) is a lip seal, and said inner groove (12), in which it is immobilized, is made up of two parts, of which l one is produced at the end of said recess (15) in said end piece (3) and the other by the end (14) of the sleeve (2), the face of the seal (7), perpendicular to the axis XX 'and turned towards the mouth of said tip (3), making abutment to said ring (8) for attachment.  5. Connection device according to claim 2, characterized in that the cylindrical part (10) of the hooking ring (8) is an external ring of section, in a plane passing through the axis XX ', rectangular, immobilized between said recess (15) and the end (14) of the bore, and said sectors (9) extending towards the inside of said ring (10), are of section, in a plane passing through the axis XX ', of generally triangular shape, one apex of which is integral with said ring (10) with which it forms a hinge, another constitutes the internal diameter carrying the teeth (13) and the third abuts against the internal wall of said endpiece (3) .  6. Connection device according to claim 5, characterized in that said sectors (9) of general triangular section have the opposite side (18) at the top forming a hinge of convex shape and the opposite side (19) at the top coming into abutment , of concave shape.  7. Connection device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, 5 and 6, characterized in that the internal groove (12) immobilizing said seal (7), consists of two parts, one of which is produced by an internal shoulder (20) of the bore (2) and the other by the surface of one end of a cylindrical spacer (11) slid into the part of the bore (2) located between said shoulder (20) and the end (14) of this bore.  8. Connection device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, 5 to 7, characterized in that said seal (7) is an O-ring.  9. Connection device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that it comprises two female end pieces (3) mounted at the two ends of the same sleeve (2) having two communicating female bores (24), and constitutes a double connection (6) between two pipe ends (1) to be connected.