Patent Application
20250164046
The present application relates to pipe joint assemblies, and more particularly to those for transporting fluid such as chemical solution, water or the like.
The transportation of chemical solutions or water are required in many manufacturing processes, for example, when a pharmaceutical factory produces drugs, or when a semiconductor factory coats the surface of a wafer to form a film of uniform thickness. Therefore, pipes and the connectors for pipes are required for many industries. However, as factories and machines become more sophisticated, the space available for installing and replacing pipes becomes smaller and smaller. Therefore, there is the lack of space to allow the movement of a pipe to be inserted into or pulled out of the connector. Therefore, there is a requirement for a new pipe joint assembly to solve such problem.
For example, PFA (Perfluoroalkoxy) pipes are popular in production of chemical, pharmaceutical, food, and semiconductor, and the traditional PFA pipe joints require special processes, and the quality of the construction affects its service life and the stability. Further, when two PFA pipes are connected during the installation process, displacement space in the direction parallel to the pipe is required to allow a pipe to be inserted into or pulled out of a connector. The lack of space will cause the difficulty to disassemble and assemble the pipe joint assembly, and the pipes cannot be removed from the joint during the installation and maintenance. If a pipe is installed forcibly, other connected pipes may be pulled violently to be damaged. Moreover, a hot air gun, expander, cleaning cloth, water, protective glasses, etc. are required to cut the PFA pipe, heat the PFA, and then insert the expander. This traditional installation is time-consuming, laborious and costly.
The traditional pipe joint assembly requires space to allow a pipe inserted into or pulled out of a connector in a direction parallel to the pipe. The pipe joint assembly of the present disclosure solve the problem of the lack of space with a structure allowing a pipe inserted into or pulled out of a connector in a direction perpendicular to the pipe.
One aspect of the present disclosure provides a pipe joint assembly comprising a gasket, pipes and a receptacle. The gasket has a through hole encircled by protrusions on two sides of the gasket. Each of the pipes has a terminal with grooves on a first connecting surface to fit the protrusions of the gasket. A sleeve contains the terminals and the gasket.
Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a pipe joint assembly comprising a gasket, pipes and a receptacle. The gasket has a through hole encircled by protrusions on two sides of the gasket. Each of the pipes has a terminal with grooves on a first connecting surface to fit the protrusions of the gasket. A clamp contains the terminals and the gasket.
Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a pipe joint assembly comprising a gasket, pipes and a receptacle. The gasket has a through hole encircled by protrusions on two sides of the gasket. Each of the pipes has a terminal with grooves on a first connecting surface to fit the protrusions of the gasket. The receptacle contains an assembly of the terminals and the gasket. The protrusions have terraces to leave space to generate the effect of the suction cups between the gasket and the first pipe.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present disclosure in order that the detailed description of the disclosure that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be described hereinafter, and form the subject of the claims of the disclosure. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures or processes for carrying out the same purposes of the present disclosure. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as set forth in the appended claims.
A more complete understanding of the present disclosure may be derived by referring to the detailed description and claims when considered in connection with the example embodiments shown in the drawings, in which:
Embodiments, or examples, of the disclosure illustrated in the drawings are now described using specific language. It shall be understood that no limitation of the scope of the disclosure is hereby intended. Any alteration or modification of the described embodiments, and any further applications of principles described in this document, are to be considered as normally occurring to one of ordinary skill in the art to which the disclosure relates. Reference numerals may be repeated throughout the embodiments, but this does not necessarily mean that feature(s) of one embodiment apply to another embodiment, even if they share the same reference numeral. It shall be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers or sections are not limited by these terms. Rather, these terms are merely used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another region, layer or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the present inventive concept. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limited to the present inventive concept. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It shall be further understood that the terms “comprises” and “comprising,” when used in this specification, point out the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or groups thereof.
A pipe joint assembly according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. As used herein, the element “pipe” is intended to include “tubing” as well.
To sum up, the connector assemblies described in the embodiments of the present disclosure can performed precise and accurate fluid control, and is extremely advantageous as a device used in, for example, a semiconductor production line or a production line of various chemicals.
Although the present disclosure and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. For example, many of the processes discussed above can be implemented in different methodologies and replaced by other processes, or a combination thereof. Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure of the present disclosure, processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed, that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present disclosure. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.
