Ball joint for connecting a riser subjected to high tensile and angular loads to a pipe connector on a floating unit
AssigneeApl Technology AS
InventorSigmund Askestad
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A ball joint includes a suspension house comprising an inner side, a house neck and upper flange, wherein a bearing ring, having a liner fastened to its inner surface, and an upper mating surface fastened to the corresponding mating surface on the lower side of the house; a suspension ball, complementary to the inner side of the house, comprising a ball neck and lower flange, the ball having a recess on the inside of the ball, the recess comprising an inner seal ring positioned on a bias ring in the recess; the seal ring providing a seal contacting the inside of the house and a piston seal contacting the inner surface of the recess wherein the bias ring biases the seal ring parallel to the axis of the neck and away from the bias ring.
Claims18
A ball joint for connecting a riser subjected to high tensile and angular loads to a pipe connector on a floating unit, the ball joint comprising:
- a suspension house comprising a spherical inner side, a suspension house neck and an upper flange, wherein a toroidal bearing ring, having an inner surface and a bearing liner fastened to the inner surface, and an upper mating surface fastened to a corresponding mating surface on a lower side of the suspension house;
- a spherical suspension ball, which is complementary to the spherical inner side of the suspension house, the spherical suspension ball comprising a suspension ball neck and a lower flange,
- wherein the suspension ball comprises a recessed portion provided on an inside of a top portion of the suspension ball, the recessed portion comprising an inner tangential/cylindrical surface and a transverse circular plane surface;
- and a seal ring positioned on top of a bias ring in the recessed portion;
- wherein the seal ring provides at least one spherical seal in sealing contact with the spherical inner side of the suspension house and at least one piston seal in sealing contact with the inner tangential/cylindrical surface of the recessed portion and wherein the bias ring provides biasing means biasing the seal ring in a direction parallel to an axis of the suspension ball neck and away from the bias ring.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.