METHOD AND MEANS FOR MOUNTING CONNECTORS OR NOZZLES ON THIN METALLIC HIGH-PRESSURE PIPES

Abstract: For the mounting of water atomising nozzles in high pressure pipes for air cooling in cowsheds and the like it is advantageous when the mounting can be effected in situ, and the invention provides for accessories enabling local penetration and deformation of the pipe at desired places thereof as well as nozzle holder units to be mounted by twisting onto the pipe for sealingly abutting the local deformation of the pipe around the penetration therein.

Description: Method and means for mounting connectors or nozzles on thin metallic high-pressure pipes . The present invention concerns a method for moun- ting moisture atomisation nozzles on metallic high-pressure pipers, especially for high-pressure cooling plants in cowsheds or other buildings where it is desirable to bring about a combined cooling and humidifying of the air by the injection of atomised water in the air space. This demands considerable water pressure in the high-pressure pipe, for example in the order of 60-80 bar or more, and for precisely this reason it is natural for use to be made of metal pipes, which even in thin-walled configuration can withstand such high pressures. The injection of atomised water into a cowshed provides an effective cooling of the air by the evaporation of the fine water particles, and it is normal practice that such an injection is arranged at strategic places in the cowshed in according with various criteria. Use is normally made of quite thin, stainless steel pipes, and they are provided with nozzles to suit individual needs. The mounting of the nozzles has hitherto been troublesome, in that this is effected, for example, by the soldering or welding on of stubs, the cutting of threads in pipe holes after drilling and collaring, or the drilling of holes and subsequent mounting of various clamping means, i.e. methods which are best suited for factory implementation. This requires extra thorough planning of the positioning of the nozzles and also great care in the production phase, and there will inevitably arise cases where the selected equipment still does not correspond to the requirements when finally mounted. In light of this, with the invention it has been found that great advantages are offered by providing an al- ternative solution which makes it possible to arrange the mounting of the nozzles at the actual mounting site, completely without factory participation. It should be noted, for example, that in connection with overhead moisturising plants, it is known to use pipes of plastic, which are pressure-loaded to a far lesser degree and which with simple means can be mounted with branching means. In US-A-5, 694, 972, it is thus disclosed that a branching can be established by fastening a threaded socket at a desi- red place on the piping by means of a clamp around the pipe, after which a coupling piece with a hollow, side-perforating tip can be tightened in for perforation of the wall of the pipe, and hereby automatically form radial sealing against the hole produced as this is gradually expanded to its final size. Such a technique does not find practical application in connection with a mounting of nozzles on the high-pressure pipes which are relevant here. However, with the invention it has been recognised that it is possible, in a purely craftsman-like manner, to effect such local preparations of a thin-walled high-pressure pipe, so that the mounting of nozzles can be carried out at any desired place on, for example, such an already mounted pipe, i.e. with concrete regard being paid to the practical conditions for the positioning of the nozzles, and consequ- ently without being bound to a possibly incorrect planning. The decisive aspect of the invention is that in the said preparations, use can be made of a hand-held tool with which it is possible to effect such a locally indented deformation of the wall of the thin, metallic pipe, that this is pressed in for perforation, and partly for the formation of an annular facet area around the perforation, so that this surrounding facet area, regardless of whether it is plane or conical, can thereafter serve as a seating for the nozzle-bearing coupling part, which provided with a sealing ring is tightened in against the deformation area by means of a suitable tightening or clamping ring for mounting around the pipe at the mounting point, even including by use of known clamping means. When the deformation tool has means for the rear- and side-support of the prepared pipe, the desired local deformation can be finalised without any other general deformation of the pipe, and the next mounting task thus becomes the tightening-in of the said coupling part for surface sealing against the depression formed in the pipe. Work is effected, of course, with a rather high pressure in the pipe, but the necessary contact area can be of a very modest extent, whereby an effective securing can be arranged by means of simple clamping means on the pipe itself. The deformation tool can be coupled to a drive mo- tor such a drilling or screwing machine, but with the invention it has been found sufficient to use a purely hand- operated tool in the shape of suitably formed tongs with a relatively long operating handle, e.g. as on a pair of hedge shears. The tool should be provided with contact means which, for a given pipe dimension, ensure that the pipe deformation can not be executed further than to a well-defined extent determined by the operator. The clamping means for the coupling part can be configured in any suitable manner, but in connection with the invention there has been developed a special, easily mounta- ble coupling part in the form of an injection-moulded item with an outstanding socket part for the accommodation of a calibrated nozzle insert, and with a perforated skirt part for projection in over the pipe to enable hook parts on the coupling part to be twisted into holding engagement with the side of the pipe opposite the area of deformation. These hook parts are preferably configured with projecting, channel- formed wing parts which can abut up against the rear of the pipe, and be cut off at an angle to ease the turning in of the coupling part. In the following, the invention is explained in more detail with reference to the drawing, in which fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a cowshed with high-pressure cooling plant, fig. 2 is a perspective view of a pressure pipe and a tool for providing holes therein, fig. 3 is a sectional view of the pipe and the tool in operative position, fig. 4 is a sectional view of the pipe and the tool, fig. 5 and 6 are perspective views of a nozzle holder for mounting on the pipe, fig. 7 and 8 are plan views for the illustration of the mounting of the nozzle holder on the pressure pipe, fig. 9 is a sectional view of the finally mounted nozzle holder with nozzle element inserted, and fig. 10 and 11 are illustrations of a tool accor- ding to the invention. Fig. 1 shows a cowshed with chimney pipes A and wall-mounted air valves B with not-shown dampers which, by means of a draw-wire C, can be controlled from a control station D. The cowshed is also provided with a pumping station E, which through high-pressure pipe F pumps water at a pressure of e.g. 70 bar out to a series of highly-placed atomising nozzles G which, at strategic places, inject the atomised water into the air space which is hereby significantly cooled by the evaporation of the water. The relevant strate- gic places can be quite critical in various respects, and quite often it is experienced that the pre-selected positions of some of the nozzles G are not entirely expedient. In light of this, with the invention it is endeavoured to be able to effect the mounting of the nozzles in situ, i.e. with the possibility after the laying-out of the pipes F of placing the nozzles while taking the actual conditions in the shed into full consideration. In fig. 2 there is shown a part section of a pres- sure pipe 2 which is marked with points 4 in which it is desirable to establish transversally radiating atomisation nozzles. These markings can also be made on a wall surface for mounting of the pipe, possibly with an indication of which direction in the vertical plane it is desirable to establish the emission from the nozzle. The pipe 2 is secured at a certain distance from the supporting wall or possibly a supporting ceiling by means of holders 6. There is hereby created the possibility that over the pipe 2 there can be placed a tool head in the form of a rectangular element 8, which as shown in fig. 3 is also configured with a side cut-out 10 for leading down over the pipe 2, said cut-out at its closed end having a forwardly- extending, semicircular recess 12 for the accommodation of the pipe 2. The tool head 8 is connected in a not-shown man- ner with a power-driven hand-tool such as a drilling machine 14 which, via a transfer unit 16, can bring about a forwards displacement of a shaft 18 with an outer pressure tool 20 in against the inwardly-facing side of the pipe 2. The pressure tool 20 has a central, projecting tip 22 and a surrounding plane annular surface 24, and from here an annular surface 26 which extends further outwards in a concave arc. When this tool is pressed in against the pipe 2, the pipe will be deformed as shown in fig. 4, namely with a breaking-through 28 of the tip 22 of the tool, and with a plane annular area 30 around this breaking-through, while the said annular surface 26 on the tool 20 will create a gradual transition between this plane annular area and the rest of the pipe circumference, both in the radial as well as the longitudinal direction of the pipe. Hereafter, the pipe will stand ready to receive the nozzle holders, precisely at the marked places 4. A holder which can be used for this purpose is shown in figs. 5 and 6. The holder is configured as an in- jection-moulded plastic item 32 with a flat intermediate wall part 34 for contact against the plane pipe surface 30, and from this wall part with a central protruding stub part 36 for sealing penetration into or connection with the pipe break-through 28. At the outer side of the wall part 34 there is provided a protruding, internally threaded pipe stub 38 which is designed to accommodate a nozzle insert, which can hereby be brought into flow connection with the pipe stub part 36. The stub 38 is configured with a pair of radially extending wing parts 40 which make it possible for the nozzle holder to be manually twisted in on the pipe 2. On the opposite or internal side of the wall part 34, the holder is configured with an inwardly extending and partly cut-away skirt part 42, the cut-away part of which allows the holder to be inserted over the pipe 2 with the stub 38 in abutment against the break-through 28 in the pipe. The skirt 42 has two diametrically opposed, extending shell parts 44 which are almost semi-cylindrical in shape, in that the edge which faces in towards said cut-away part is smaller in height than the opposite edge. The relationships are thus arranged so that it hereby becomes possible for the holder to be turned in to a position in which the shell parts 44 snap in under or behind the pipe 2 for securing the holder in said position of abutment. As indicated, it is hereby sufficient for an operative abutment that the holder is twisted into place in a purely manual manner by use of the wings 40, cf. also figs. 7 and 8. The mounted position is shown in fig. 9, which also shows that at the end of the stub part 36 there is housed a sealing ring 46 which tightens against the wall of the pipe directly around the break-through 28 when the wall part 34 of the holder is in contact with the annular surface 30 on the pipe. Fig. 9 also shows that in the threaded stub 38 the- re is screwed a nozzle element 48 with a calibrated nozzle channel 50, preferably with intermediate bedding of a filter element 52. It must be mentioned that the tool head 8 can be provided with a spirit level or protractor, by means of which it is easy to determine the connection points for emission in the desired angular directions. The tool in itself can otherwise be configured in many different ways, including also as a pair of tongs for clamping together against the pipe and as a stationary tool for the processing of loose pipe lengths with pre-marked mounting points for the nozzles. Figs. 9 and 10 show a preferred embodiment of the hand-tool for producing the said pipe deformations. The tool has an elongated guide housing 54 with closed front end 56 and rear end 58, and a foremost, fixedly mounted hand grip 60, and a corresponding rearmost hand grip 62 which is fastened to a link part 66 which is pivotal around a fixed, transverse pin 64. At 68, this link part 66 is in pivotal connection with a guide arm 70 which extends forwards to pivotal connection 72 with a plunger part 74, which at its front end houses a protruding pressure pin 76 which, in front of the plunger part 76, has an enlarged head part 78 and a pin 80 with a central, pointed tip 82. The pin 80 is housed in a bore in a block element 84 which foremost has a semi- cylindrical recess 86 directly behind a corresponding recess 88 in the front end part of the guide housing 54. When the handle 62 is swung rearwards, the plunger part 74 is slid rearwards for the withdrawal of the block element 84, so that there is room through a slot 90 for the introduction of the front end of the tool over a pipe, which thereafter will be clamped firmly in the recesses 86 and 88 when the block element 84 is moved forwards by the swinging forward of the handle 62. By further swinging forwards of this handle, the plunger part 74 is moved forwards, whereby the clamped pipe is perforated and deformed respectively by the pointed tip 82 and the pin 80. This effect is brought -to an abrupt end when the head part 78 is brought into contact against the rear of the block element 84, whereby the operator can clearly feel that the deformation has been concluded with necessary surety that it has not been driven further than prescribed. The tool is shown provided with a fixedly mounted but adjustable spirit level 92.

Claims: C L A I M S 1. Method for mounting moisture atomisation nozzles on thin metallic high-pressure pipes, primarily for high- pressure cooling of cowsheds and the like, where -the pipe is prepared in desired places for the securing of atomisation nozzles or possibly other branching elements, c h a r a c - t e r i s e d in that said preparation is effected by means of a hand-held deformation tool with which - preferably in situ - there is carried out such a one-sided indentation- deformation and perforation of the wall of the pipe that this is not only perforated locally, but also provided with an annular facet area around the perforation, after which a coupling part with a nozzle and intermediate sealing ring is tightened in against the deformation area by means of a tightening or clamping ring for mounting around the pipe at the mounting point. 2. Method according to claim 1 c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the facet area is formed as a plane annular area. 3. Method according to claim 1, that as coupling part, use is made of a socket part with a stub part for axial abutment against the facet area via an intermediately coupled sealing ring, and that this socket part is mounted on the pipe with a turning movement, whereby hook parts on the socket part are brought into holding engagement with the opposite part of the pipe wall. 4. Tool for the preparation of a thin-walled metal pipe for execution of the method according to claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that it consists of a hand-held tool with clamping means for fastening around the pipe, and with a tool plunger for pressing in against the side of the pipe, said plunger having a perforating tip and a surrounding collar area which can be pressed in to form an annular facet area around the perforation which the plunger tip produces in the wall of the pipe. 5. Tool according to claim 4, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the tool plunger is housed in a displaceable manner in a guide housing, said plunger displacement being effected by means of a relatively long handle extending from the tool. 6. Coupling part for mounting on a pipe by the method according to claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that it is configured as disclosed in claim 3.

Inventors: CHRISTENSEN JOHN L, CHRISTENSEN, JOHN, L.
Applicants: CHRISTENSEN JOHN L, SKOV AS, CHRISTENSEN, JOHN, L., SKOV A/S
Application year: 2001
Main classification: F16L41
IPC codes: B25B27, F16L41