Clamp

A process for providing a pipe clamp having an optimized weight, the pipe clamp having a pair of complementary clamping members to the clamped together to complete the clamp, the process comprising the steps of:

• A. designing a pipe clamp having
• a clamp wall which radially defines a wall tensile load center line around a central point;
• and
• laterally spaced bolting flanges, each flange defining a blot force center line at a selected offset distance from the wall center line;
• wherein the clamp so designed meets at least a minimal acceptable criteria for claim wall thickness, clamp body bending stress and bolt bending stress;
• clamp body bending stress and bolt bending stress;
• B. optimizing the offset distance to provide a minimized clamp weight, by a process which includes the steps of
• (a) selecting an offset distance of approximately zero;
• (b) calculating the physical dimensions of a clamp having the selected offset distance, the clamp meeting at least minimum acceptable criteria for clamp wall thickness, clamp body bending stress and bolt bending stress;
• (c) determining the weight of a clamp having the calculated physical dimensions;
• (d) incrementally increasing the selected offset distance;
• (e) calculating the physical dimensions of a claim having the incrementally increased offset distance, the clamp meeting at least a minimum acceptable criteria for claim wall thickness, clamp body bending stress and bolt bending stress;
• (f) determining the weight of a clamp having the physical dimensions calculated in step (e);
• (g) testing to determine if the weight of the clamp having the incrementally increased offset distance is less than the weight of a clamp having the previous offset increment;
• (h) repeating steps (d) through (g) until a clamp having the desired minimized weight is obtained;
• and
• C. forming the designed clamp having the optimized offset distance.