Patent ID: 7101457

Claim:
A method for repairing a pipe network interconnecting thermal plastic pipe adhesively bonded with thermal plastic fixtures without damaging the fixtures such as to prevent reuse, comprising in combination: severing the thermal plastic pipe to be removed from the thermal plastic fixture spacedly distant from the fixture; placing a heating tool having an elongate cylindrical electrically powered heating head with an external diameter less than the internal diameter of the thermal plastic pipe to be removed within the portion of the thermal plastic pipe that is carried within the fixture; supplying electric power to the heating head to cause heating therein and thereabout to release adhesive bonding between the pipe and the fixture carrying the pipe while maintaining coherence of the pipe and configurational stability of the fixture; removing the heating head from the pipe to be removed; inserting an external element of a pipe removal tool, having an elongate handle and a cylindrical extraction element with first and second spacedly separated portions extending perpendicularly therefrom, over the outer end portion of the damaged pipe with the first portion between the damaged pipe and a port of the fixture carrying the damaged pipe element and the second portion of the extraction element within the channel defined by the pipe; and rotating the handle of the pipe removal tool to rotate the extraction element relative to the pipe to engage the extraction element with the damaged pipe; and manually moving the pipe removal tool away from the fixture substantially along the extended axis of the pipe to remove the pipe from the fixture.