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US 4,901,551 AGranted
Hydraulic expansion tool for tubular element
AssigneeCockerill Mechanical Industries
InventorJean E. Widart
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
To an elongate body (1) having preferably an adjustable length, seals (2, 3) are fixed. The seals comprise a skirt (22) forming a crown which surrounds a body portion at a small distance from the surface thereof, the skirt being made of a material having a flexibility sufficient to be slightly reduced in diameter when the tool is introduced into a tubular element to be expanded. The skirts of the two seals may be interconnected, thus outwardly delimiting an internal ring-shaped chamber (20) intended to receive an expansion fluid.
Claims5
Hydraulic expansion tool for expanding a tubular element, comprising:
- an elongate body member having an outer surface;
- a plurality of seals disposed about the elongate body member, each seal having a head portion fixed to the outer surface of the elongate body member, each seal having a skirt portion forming a crown surrounding the outer surface of the elongate body member, and each seal having an outer marginal zone dimensioned to directly contact over a predetermined length the inner surface of a tubular element to be expanded by the tool;
- wherein the skirt portions of the seals are suitably dimensioned and formed of a material sufficiently flexible to enable a reduction in seal dimension when the tool is introduced into a tubular element and consequent flexible fit between the seals and the inner surface of the tubular element;
- wherein the skirt portions of at least one pair of adjacent seals are connected to each other to form at least one annular chamber between the at least one pair of seals and the outer surface of the elongate body member;
- rings clamped between the head portions of the seals and held by compression means to the elongate body member, said rings comprising a plurality of adjacent sectors;
- seal cover means disposed between the seals and the rings for preventing extrusion of the seal between adjacent sectors of the rings;
- and
- means for introducing an expansion fluid into the at least one annular chamber.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.