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US 12,181,095 B2Granted
Expandable tapered pin plug for heat exchangers and air cooled heat exchangers
AssigneeJNT Technical Services, Inc.
InventorsGlenn F. Jorgensen, Ryan J. Jorgensen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tube plug for securely sealing a tube to be plugged. The tube plug has a housing member with a non-cylindrical body and a deformable wall. An insert member having a threaded shank and a ramped ferrule can be threaded into the body to deform the deformable wall outwardly and into engagement with the tube to be sealed. The non-cylindrical body allow the plug to be inserted into and used to plug a tube that is in a difficult to reach location and whose diameter may not be precisely known.
Claims14
A tube plug, comprising:
- a housing member having a non-cylindrical body with a deformable wall continuously surrounding an inner bore and a cylindrical body extending from the non-cylindrical body and including a threaded bore in communication with the inner bore, wherein the non-cylindrical body and the cylindrical body extend along a longitudinal axis;
- an insert member having a threaded shank corresponding to the threaded bore and a ramped ferrule coupled to the threaded shank and positioned in the inner bore of the housing member adjacent to the deformable wall so that rotation of the threaded shank in the threaded bore will advance the ramped ferrule into the inner bore to deform the deformable wall of the non-cylindrical body outwardly.
A method of sealing a leaking element of a heat exchanger, comprising the steps of:
- providing a tube plug having a housing member and an insert member, wherein the housing member has a non-cylindrical body with a deformable wall that surrounds an inner bore and a cylindrical body that extends from the non-cylindrical body and has a threaded bore in communication with the inner bore, and wherein the insert member has a threaded shank corresponding to the threaded bore and a ramped ferrule coupled to the threaded shank and positioned in the inner bore of the housing member adjacent to the deformable wall;
- seating the tube plug at least partially into a tube of the heat exchanger so that the cylindrical body and at least part of the non-cylindrical body of the tube plug extend longitudinally into the tube;
- and
- rotating the threaded shank of the insert member so that the ramped ferrule is advanced into the inner bore, thereby deforming the deformable wall of the non-cylindrical body outwardly into the tube of the heat exchanger.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.