Pipe Plug Sealing with Cold-Formed Grooves for Sprinkler Connections
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Solution Overview
Problem
The installation of fire suppression system piping networks is laborious and messy due to the need for cutting threads in steel pipes, which contaminates surfaces and generates waste metal chips, and even with grooved pipe elements, thread cutting is still required for connecting sprinklers, complicating the process.
Innovation Solution
An adapter with a body having circumferential grooves and seals that interfits within the pipe element, eliminating the need for thread cutting by using seals and deformations in the pipe element to create a fluid-tight seal, allowing for easy connection and sealing of sprinklers without mechanical couplings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If cut threaded piping is used to join pipe elements, then the piping network can be assembled, but the installation process becomes laborious and messy with cutting oil contamination and waste metal chips
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates the thread cutting operation from the pipe installation process by using groove-engaging mechanical couplings that connect to cold-formed grooves in the pipe elements, removing the source of cutting oil contamination and waste metal chips while maintaining the ability to assemble the piping network
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces the mechanical thread cutting system with a cold-forming groove system followed by mechanical coupling engagement, substituting the harmful thread cutting mechanism with a cleaner groove formation and engagement mechanism that achieves the same pipe connection function without the harmful byproducts
2Ease of manufacture
If grooved pipe elements with mechanical couplings are used, then thread cutting is eliminated for most connections, but thread cutting is still required for connecting sprinklers to pipe elements
Solution Approach 1:
The invention makes the groove-engaging mechanical coupling system universal by designing the plug to engage grooves in the same manner as pipe-to-pipe connections, allowing the same coupling mechanism to seal off pipe runs without requiring thread cutting or specialized equipment, thereby eliminating the need for reducing fittings and simplifying the overall installation process
3Adaptability or versatility
If female-female threaded reducing fittings are used to connect sprinklers to pipe elements, then the connection can be made, but male threads must still be cut in the pipe element end
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the thread cutting step from the sprinkler connection process by designing a plug with grooves that engage the existing grooves in the pipe element, eliminating the need for reducing fittings and the associated thread cutting operation while maintaining the ability to connect sprinklers to pipe elements of various sizes
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The adapter eliminates thread cutting, reducing installation complexity and mess, providing a reliable, leak-proof connection that withstands fire suppression system pressures and allows for efficient pipe element joining using groove-engaging mechanical couplings.
Implementation Method 1
A deformation is positioned in the sidewall and extends circumferentially around the pipe element. The deformation is aligned with the groove and engages the seal to retain the body within the pipe bore.
Data Source
AI summary
A plug for sealing a pipe element has a cylindrical body with a circumferential groove which receives seals. The plug fits within the pipe element and is secured and sealed by a deformation formed in the pipe element by a circumferential groove. The deformation mechanically engages the grooves in the body of the adapter and the plug.