Method and apparatus for joining plastic pipes

摘要

A method and apparatus for joining plastic pipes 10 is disclosed. An annular flange 20 is threaded onto an end portion of a plastic pipe 10 followed by the threading of an annular electrofusion coupler 30 onto the end portion of the plastic pipe 10. The annular electrofusion coupler is then energised to fuse it to the plastic pipe 10 and if an end portion of the plastic pipe 10 extends beyond the annular electrofusion coupler 30, it is trimmed to make it substantially flush with the electrofusion coupler. The above steps are performed on another similar plastic pipe 10 and the electrofusion couplers of both pipes are positioned substantially adjacent to each other and substantially in axial alignment with other and the two annular flanges 20 are secured to each other. The joined plastic pipes 10 could be free standing or buried directly in the ground or could be loosely fitted within another pipe 40.