Pressure seal with built in testing system
AssigneeExpro North Sea Limited
InventorsJohn Henry McKay, David Sirda Shanks
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A connector is described, including a housing including an internal volume, a port in the housing for receiving a conduit and providing access to the internal volume, a sealing arrangement for sealing the internal volume in the housing and a seal integrity test system including a sensor coupled to the housing. The seal integrity test system is configured to provide a measurement based on the pressure inside the internal volume of the housing to establish the integrity of the sealing arrangement.
Claims14
A connector, comprising:
- a housing comprising an internal volume;
- a port in the housing for receiving a conduit and providing access to the internal volume;
- a sealing arrangement for sealing the internal volume in the housing, the sealing arrangement having a first seal and a second seal;
- a seal integrity test system comprising a sensor coupled to the housing;
- a configurable test component being disposable in a first configuration to enable testing of the first seal of the sealing arrangement, and disposable in a second configuration to enable testing of the second seal of the sealing arrangement;
- and
- the seal integrity test system being configured to provide a measurement based on the pressure inside the internal volume of the housing to establish the integrity of the sealing arrangement.
A method for testing the integrity of a sealing arrangement in a connector, the connector comprising a housing that defines an internal volume, a sealing arrangement configured to seal the internal volume in the housing, and a seal integrity test system comprising a sensor and a configurable test component, wherein the sealing arrangement includes a first seal and a second seal, the method comprising:
- coupling the seal integrity test system to the housing;
- configuring the configurable test component to energize or de-energize the sealing arrangement or the seal in the sealing arrangement to enable testing of the sealing arrangement;
- disposing the configurable test component in a first configuration to test the first seal, and pressure testing the first seal using a source of pressurized fluid, and measuring a first parameter using the sensor of the seal integrity test system to determine an integrity of the first seal;
- and
- disposing the configurable test component in a second configuration to test the second seal, and pressure testing the second seal using the source of pressurized fluid, and measuring a second parameter using the sensor of the seal integrity test system to determine an integrity of the second seal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.