PIPE COUPLING HAVING DOUBLE-THREADED TIGHTENING FASTENER AND ASSOCIATED METHODS

摘要

A pipe coupling for coupling adjacent pipe ends of a pair of pipes includes a sleeve, a sealing gasket operatively coupled with the sleeve adjacent an open end of the sleeve, and a clamping element for compressing the sleeve or the sealing gasket into tightened engagement with one of the pipe ends. The clamping element includes two bolt flanges nominally spaced apart by a gap and a double threaded fastening bolt with two external threaded portions, which engage with two corresponding fastening nuts having right-hand thread and left-hand thread, respectively. Accordingly, when the fastening bolt is rotated, both of the fastening nuts move towards or away from one another, thereby rapidly moving the bolt flanges to shrink the gap and compress the clamping element or to expand the gap. As such, less time and labor are required to operate the pipe coupling in the field.

主权项

1. A pipe coupling for coupling two pipe ends together, comprising:
a sleeve having a generally cylindrical body portion with open opposing ends configured to receive the two pipe ends; a sealing gasket operatively coupled with the sleeve for engaging at least one of the two pipe ends; and a clamping element operatively coupled with the sleeve for compressing the sealing gasket into tightened engagement with at least one of the two pipe ends, the clamping element further including:
first and second bolt flanges nominally spaced from one another to define a gap therebetween,a double threaded fastening bolt extending generally tangential to the generally cylindrical body portion of the sleeve and through the first and second bolt flanges, the fastening bolt including first and second external threaded portions connected at a central bolt portion and respectively defining a right-hand thread and a left-hand thread, andfirst and second fastening nuts in threaded engagement with the first and second external threaded portions of the fastening bolt and positioned to abut the respective first and second bolt flanges, the first fastening nut including a threaded bore with a right-hand thread and the second fastening nut including a threaded bore with a left-hand thread.