Pipe Flange Coupling Structure With Gasket-Guided Axis Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing coupling structures for pipe members require costly processing for guide ring recesses, making them bulky and difficult to use in narrow spaces.
Innovation Solution
A coupling structure that eliminates the guide ring by forming recesses in the flanges for an annular gasket, ensuring axis alignment while reducing processing costs and maintaining compactness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a guide ring is used for axis alignment, then the axis alignment performance is improved, but the processing cost increases and the structure becomes bulky
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the axis alignment function from the separate guide ring component and integrates it directly into the flange structure through recesses. This eliminates the need for a distinct guide ring while maintaining the alignment capability, thereby reducing processing cost and structural bulk.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the axis alignment function with the flange structure by forming recesses directly in the flange. This combines what were previously separate functions (flange for connection and guide ring for alignment) into a single integrated structure, reducing overall complexity and cost.
2Manufacturing precision
If recesses are formed in flanges for guide ring, then the axis alignment performance is improved, but the flange size increases making it difficult to use in narrow spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the guide ring as a separate component and integrates its alignment function directly into the flange recesses. This eliminates the need for additional external alignment components, keeping the flange size compact while maintaining alignment precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The annular gasket is nested within the recesses formed in the flanges, which themselves are part of the flange structure. This nested arrangement allows the alignment and sealing functions to be contained within the existing flange footprint without increasing overall size.
3Ease of operation
If the coupling structure is made compact, then the ease of operation in narrow spaces is improved, but the axis alignment performance may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the axis alignment function with the compact flange structure by forming recesses directly in the flange. This integration ensures that alignment precision is maintained within the compact dimensions, allowing easy operation in narrow spaces without sacrificing alignment performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The recesses in the flanges act as intermediaries that guide the annular gasket into proper alignment. This intermediary structure enables precise axis alignment to be achieved within the compact flange dimensions, facilitating easy coupling and detachment operations.
Data Source
AI summary
In order to make it possible to ensure the axis alignment performance while reducing the processing cost, and to make a coupling structure compact to perform the coupling work and the detaching work of pipe members without difficulty even in a narrow work space, the coupling structure according to the invention includes a pipe coupling that couples a pair of pipe members each including a flange at an end portion in a state where the flanges of the pipe members face each other, an annular gasket interposed between the flanges of the pair of pipe members, and recesses formed individually in facing surfaces of the flanges facing each other, in which the annular gasket fitted into the respective recesses makes pipe axes of the pipe members and the annular gasket coincide with each other.