Joining member and method of joining two conductive pieces of fiberglass reinforced plastic pipe

Abstract

This invention provides a method of joining two pieces of fiberglass reinforced pipe, the pipe having a pipe wall and including means for conducting electricity through the pipe from one end to the other end, and a joining member. The joining member includes a cylinder having a wall and including a first end adapted to receive one of the pipe pieces and a second end adapted to receive the other of the pipe pieces. The joining member also includes an inner ring integral with the cylinder wall, the ring extending radially inwardly from the cylinder wall a distance equal to about the width of the pipe wall. The inner ring also has a first side facing the first cylinder end and a second side facing the second cylinder end. The method comprises placing the one pipe piece inside the joining member first end and then the other pipe piece inside the joining member second end so a conductive adhesive is between the joining member cylinder wall, the first ring side and the second ring side and the pipe pieces so that the adhesive is between the joining member and the one pipe piece and the other pipe piece and conducts electricity from one pipe piece to the other pipe piece, and the two pieces of pipe each include an inside conductive surface and an outside conductive surface, and the conductive adhesive extends along the ring first and second sides between the inside and the outside pipe conductive surfaces and contacts the inside and the outside conductive surfaces so that static charge on the inside pipe surface can pass to the outside pipe surface.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.