Conduit Coupler Tongue Structure for Fast Misalignment-Tolerant Joining
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for suspending equipment like conduit, pipe, and ducts from ceilings or sidewalls are labor-intensive and time-consuming, especially when dealing with misaligned or non-straight conduits.
Innovation Solution
The development of a coupler with a tapered entry and a tongue design that facilitates easier alignment and installation of conduits by providing a wider insertion opening and a support surface for guiding the conduit into place.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional methods are used to suspend conduit from ceiling, then equipment can be supported, but installation is labor-intensive and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The coupler body is pre-formed with an integrated tongue structure that extends beyond the open end, creating a built-in guiding and support mechanism. This preliminary structural preparation eliminates the need for separate alignment tools or procedures during installation, allowing workers to simply insert the conduit which then automatically follows the pre-defined path created by the tongue and wings.
Solution Approach 2:
The tongue structure acts as an intermediary element between the coupler body and the conduit. It provides a transitional support surface that receives the conduit at an extended position and guides it into the coupler body, mediating the connection process and making installation easier and faster.
2Ease of operation
If conventional couplers are used, then conduit can be joined, but alignment of misaligned or non-straight conduits is difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The tongue extends in a direction beyond the open end of the coupler body, creating an extended support surface that protrudes outward. This dimensional extension provides a larger target area for conduit placement and creates a gradual transition path that accommodates misaligned or non-straight conduit entries, making alignment easier without complicating the basic coupler structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The tongue structure is asymmetric in its positioning and configuration, extending specifically beyond the open end to create a one-sided guiding mechanism. This asymmetric design provides targeted support where it is most needed during insertion, while maintaining a simple overall coupler structure that does not require symmetric complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If conventional couplers without extended support are used, then structure is simple, but dimensional errors during prefabrication cannot be accommodated
Solution Approach 1:
The coupler body is pre-formed with an integrated tongue structure that extends beyond the open end, creating a built-in guiding and support mechanism. This preliminary structural preparation eliminates the need for separate alignment tools or procedures during installation, allowing workers to simply insert the conduit which then automatically follows the pre-defined path created by the tongue and wings.
Solution Approach 2:
The tongue extends in a direction beyond the open end of the coupler body, creating an extended support surface that protrudes outward. This dimensional extension provides a larger target area for conduit placement and creates a gradual transition path that accommodates misaligned or non-straight conduit entries, making alignment easier without complicating the basic coupler structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A coupler for joining conduit can include a body defining an internal body passage that includes a first open end to receive a first conduit in a first axial insertion direction and a second open end to receive a second conduit in a second axial insertion direction. The body can include a tongue extending from a first axial end of the body in a tongue direction, opposite the first axial insertion direction, to provide a support surface that extends axially away from the first open end of the internal body passage in the tongue direction. The tongue can include a landing surface aligned with a bottom portion of the support surface and wings extending upwardly and laterally outwardly from the landing surface. The tongue can extend around less than a full perimeter of the first open end and the wings extend laterally wider than the first open end.