Manway gasket compression stop
AssigneeStrato, Inc.
InventorsJason REILING, Jennifer Mak, Michael Serra
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for preventing manway cover gasket over-compression utilizes machined surfaces on the top of eye bolt lugs on the side of a manway nozzle, machined compression stops on the periphery of the cover, and a specified distance between the top of the eye bolt lug and the manway nozzle edge to engage the stops at a predetermined amount of gasket compression. Force is distributed over an increased contact surface area between the manway cover and the bolt lugs to ensure that deformation occurs preferentially in the eye bolts before any other component in the manway cover system.
Claims20
A manway cover system for a railway tank car, comprising:
- a nozzle having a top edge defining an opening in the tank car;
- a manway cover received on the nozzle;
- a plurality of bolt lugs on a vertical side surface of the nozzle, each bolt lug having a top surface;
- a plurality of slots in a peripheral edge of the manway cover for receiving bolts to tighten the manway cover on the nozzle, each of the plurality of slots defined by two ears defining opposite sides of the respective slot;
- at least one projection extending downward from an edge of the manway cover having a horizontal bottom surface adapted to contact the top surface of at least one respective bolt lug;
- a plurality of bolts attached to respective bolt lugs in a pivoting relationship;
- and
- a gasket received between the nozzle and the manway cover;
- wherein
- the top surface of each of said plurality of bolt lugs is at the same distance from the top edge of the nozzle.
A manway cover for use with a manway cover and nozzle system for a railway tank car, the cover being received on a tank car nozzle defining an opening in the tank car, the cover attached to the nozzle with a plurality of bolts attached to a plurality of respective bolt lugs attached to a vertical sidewall of the nozzle, and a gasket being interposed between a top edge of the nozzle and the cover, the cover comprising:
- a circumferential slot in the cover receiving the top edge of the nozzle;
- a plurality of slots in a peripheral edge of the cover receiving the bolts to tighten the manway cover on the nozzle, each of said plurality of slots defined by two ears defining opposite sides of the slot;
- and
- a projection extending downwardly from the sides of each slot, having a machined horizontal bottom surface, said machined horizontal bottom surface adapted to contact a machined top surface of the bolt lug at a predetermined amount of compression of the gasket.
A method for preventing over-compression of a manway cover gasket in a manway cover system for a railway tank car, comprising:
- providing a nozzle having a top edge defining an opening in the tank car;
- providing a manway cover received on the nozzle with a plurality of slots in a peripheral edge of the cover for receiving bolts to tighten the manway cover on the nozzle, each of the plurality of slots defined by two ears defining opposite sides of the respective slot, and a respective projection extending downwardly from the edge of the cover having a horizontal bottom surface;
- providing a plurality of bolt lugs on a vertical side surface of the nozzle;
- providing a plurality of bolts attached to respective bolt lugs in a pivoting relationship;
- providing a gasket received between the top edge of the nozzle and the cover;
- machining the top surface of each of said plurality of bolt lugs to maintain a constant distance between the machined top surface of each of said plurality of bolt lugs and the top edge of the nozzle;
- and
- tightening the manway cover on the nozzle to compress the gasket and contact the horizontal bottom surface of the downwardly extending projection with the machined top surface of the bolt lug.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.