Smooth-Bore Hose End Connector for High-Pressure Cycle Durability
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Solution Overview
Problem
High-pressure hoses in industrial applications often fail at the point of connection to metal couplers due to excessive stress and pressure cycles, leading to operational failures and potential hazards like well blowouts in drilling operations.
Innovation Solution
A low compression hose connector design featuring a stem and ferrule with gripper regions and a smooth surface for reduced radial compression, combined with a two-step swaging process that minimizes damage to the hose during ferrule forming, ensuring a secure and reliable bond between the hose and coupler.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a traditional metal coupler is tightly crimped onto the hose, then the connection strength is improved, but the hose material is damaged and failure occurs at the connection point
Solution Approach 1:
The connector is divided into two separate components: a stem that receives the hose and a ferrule that is crimped onto the stem. This segmentation allows the crimping force to be applied to the ferrule rather than directly to the hose, preserving hose integrity while maintaining connection strength through the ferrule-stem bond.
Solution Approach 2:
The ferrule acts as an intermediary element between the hose and the stem. It receives the crimping force and transfers it to the stem through mechanical bonding, preventing direct contact between the crimping tool and the hose, thereby avoiding hose damage while achieving secure connection.
2Reliability
If a smooth surface is provided in the stem to reduce radial compression, then the hose integrity is improved, but the gripping force on the hose reinforcement may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The stem surface is designed with different local qualities: a smooth section that contacts only the hose liner (reducing radial compression on reinforcement) and a gripper section with external protrusions that contact the hose reinforcement (providing gripping force). This local differentiation resolves the contradiction by providing both smooth contact and gripping surfaces in appropriate locations.
Data Source
AI summary
An improved end connector for a high-pressure reinforced hose that is subjected to high frequency of pressure cycles and that provides for a low compression deformation of the reinforced hose is discussed. This unique end connector has a stem and ferrule that includes a gripper or cable lock region near a coupler, or outboard end and a substantially smooth length on an outer diameter (OD) of the stem and ferrule that extends from about the gripper region to a hose receiving, or inboard, end.