3D-Printed Retaining Attachment for Weld Pipe Gas Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing mounting attachments for forming gas supply lines in welding processes often fail to provide complete security against room air ingress due to incomplete tightness or the need for multiple sizes, which can compromise the integrity of the gas seal during welding.
Innovation Solution
A mounting attachment with detachable cylindrical components, featuring 3D-printed plastic seals and a gas passage bore, ensures secure sealing by using adaptable, lightweight, and material-efficient designs, including elastic hollow rings and integrated gas swirl nozzles to prevent contamination, specifically suited for TIG welding and UHP applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional mounting attachments are used for forming gas supply lines, then they can be manufactured in standard sizes, but they fail to provide complete sealing against room air ingress and require multiple sizes for different pipe diameters
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting attachment incorporates an adjustable clamping mechanism that can modify its inner diameter to accommodate different pipe sizes. The clamping force and positioning can be varied to maintain reliable sealing across multiple pipe diameters, eliminating the need for multiple standardized sizes while ensuring complete protection against lateral air ingress.
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting attachment is designed as a universal device that can securely hold forming gas supply lines of various diameters through adjustable clamping elements. This multi-functional design allows a single attachment type to serve multiple pipe sizes, improving adaptability while maintaining sealing integrity through the adjustable clamping mechanism.
2Reliability
If complex equipment with many sealing elements is provided for automatic welding systems, then sealing coverage is improved, but device complexity and the number of components to be sealed increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting attachment integrates the sealing function directly into the clamping mechanism itself, rather than using separate sealing elements. The clamping elements are designed to provide both mechanical support and sealing action simultaneously, reducing the total number of components while maintaining comprehensive sealing coverage for the forming gas supply line.
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting attachment uses flexible sealing elements that can conform to the pipe surface and provide complete sealing coverage. These flexible components can adapt to slight variations in pipe geometry while maintaining contact, ensuring reliable sealing without requiring multiple rigid sealing elements or complex sealing arrangements.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple different sized mounting attachments are stocked for various pipe diameters, then adaptability to different pipes is improved, but inventory complexity and the risk of incomplete sealing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting attachment features adjustable parameters including clamping force, inner diameter, and positioning that can be modified to match different pipe specifications. This adjustability ensures that the same mounting attachment design can reliably seal pipes of various diameters, eliminating the need to stock multiple fixed-size attachments while maintaining consistent sealing quality across all applications.
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 solution provides a reliable, compact, and adaptable mounting system that minimizes gas leakage and contamination, allowing for precise fitting without the need for multiple sizes, enhancing the integrity of the welding process while promoting sustainable and efficient material use.
Implementation Method 1
The hollow rings can deform by several millimeters when pressed into place, thus ensuring an optimal fit around the pipeline
Implementation Method 2
The gas vortex nozzle delivers a gas flow that runs close to the pipeline walls, reliably preventing the deposition of various manganese oxides on the inner pipe wall in the immediate vicinity of a weld
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a retaining attachment with a connecting region for a forming gas supply, comprising a first cylindrical retaining means and a second cylindrical retaining means, which are to be separably fastened to one another, in particular can be screwed into each other, wherein the first retaining means and/or the second retaining means are/is formed so as to be customised in a 3D plastic printing method such that an inserted pipeline to be welded is to be held by an essentially central passage in the first retaining means, with a cylindrical insertion region for the pipeline to be welded in the second retaining means, wherein the insertion region comprises a stop ring region and a connecting region for a gas passage bore for supplying forming gas to a point of gas use by a forming gas supply in the pipeline to be welded, wherein the inserted pipeline is held so as to be sealed with respect to the cylindrical retaining means by one or more flexible seals, in particular sealing rings, which are produced in a 3D plastic printing method, in particular so as to be customised.