WO2008132446A2

WO2008132446A2 - A connector

Info

Publication number: WO2008132446A2
Application number: PCT/GB2008/001438
Authority: WO
Inventors: Iain Lindsay Bomphray
Original assignee: Iain Lindsay Bomphray
Priority date: 2007-04-25
Filing date: 2008-04-24
Publication date: 2008-11-06
Also published as: GB0707976D0; WO2008132446A3

Abstract

A connector (11) for drains or pipes, comprising a male and female half connector (13, 12) interconnected via a bayonet type mechanism comprising a plurality of radially extending lugs (15) on one of the half connectors which co-operate with a cam ring (21) formed on the other half connector, the cam ring (21) having a respective pair of cam surfaces (22A, 22B) thereon for each lug (15), each pair of cam surfaces (22A, 22B) is arranged back to back on each side of an opening (23) and each extends inwardly away from the opening (23) towards a detent (24) so that axial insertion of said lugs (15) into said opening (23) followed by relative rotation of the two half connectors in either direction, causes each lug to move along a cam surface to engage a detent.

Description

A Connector

Field The present invention relates to connectors and in particular but not exclusively to pipe connectors for interconnecting lengths of slot drains or line drains to form drainage systems.

Background of the Invention Pipe connectors for the interconnection of plastics waste pipes are well known. A known pipe connectors is shown in GB-A-1223 575 which discloses adjacent pipe ends having a respective male and female half connectors thereon, the two half connectors engage telescopically and are locked together by means of a bayonet connection formed between the two half connectors.

Another type of connector is shown in GB A- 91 1389 in which a pair of pipe ends are interconnected by a surrounding cylindrical collar and each end of the collar is secured to in the respective pipe end by a separate locking ring held in place by a bayonet connector. Other known pipe connectors which utilise separate locking rings held in place by bayonet type latching mechanisms are shown in DE-A- 10030030 and US-B-6755 446.

The present invention provides a connector suitable for the interconnection of pipe lengths, in particular lengths of slot drain, the two halves of the pipe connector locking directly together by means of an improved bayonet latching mechanism. Statements of Invention

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a connector comprising a male half connector and a female half connector which are interconnected by a bayonet type latching mechanism comprising a plurality of radially extending lugs formed on one of the male and female half connectors which co-operate with a cam ring formed on the other half connector, the cam ring having a respective pair of axially directed cam surfaces thereon for each lug, each pair of cam surfaces being arranged back to back and extending away from an axial opening for receiving a respective lug and leading inwardly away from the opening to a detent, so that axial insertion of said lugs followed by relative rotation of the two half connectors, either clockwise or anti clockwise, causes each lug to move along the cam surface to engage a respective detent.

The lugs and cam ring may be formed integrally with the respective half connectors if the half connectors are moulded as a single component.

The lugs are preferably equiangularly circumferentially spaced around the respective half connector and there are preferably two-four lugs and preferably three lugs. Preferably the lugs have a triangular form when viewed radially with the apex directed towards the opening on insertion to facilitate easy location and self alignment of the two half connectors. The triangular shape also allows the lug to resiliently deform to provide an inherent resilient locking load when the lug engages the respective detent. An indentation, preferably arcuate, may be provided in the base of the triangle to reduce the factional contact between the lug and a respective cam surface and to facilitate deformation of the two base corners of the triangular lug.

The cam surfaces are in the form of shallow curved surfaces substantially normal to the axis of rotation, that is substantially radial and the detent may be an axial step and/or radial step formed in the cam ring and with which the lug is resiliently engagable. Preferably, the lugs are preferably formed on the male half connector and the cam ring is formed on the female half connector.

The male half connector may comprise two male half connectors arranged back to back with a radial flange therebetween. The female connector comprises an annular body with the cam ring formed on the radially inner surface thereof.

In use, the female half connector may be secured in a circular recess formed in the end face of a hollow body or pipe, and the male half connector is connectable with said respective female half connector.

The half connectors are preferably made from a plastics material, typically a polyolefϊn, and more preferably a medium density polyethylene.

Such connectors may be utilised for connecting lengths of linear or slot drainage pipes. Description of the Drawings

The invention will be described by way of Example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which :

Fig.1 is a plan sectional view of an assembled connector according to the present invention,

Fig. 2 is an isometric view of the male half connector of the connector shown in Fig. 1 , Fig. 3 is an isometric view of the female half connector of the connector shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 4 is an end view of a portion of the female connector,

Fig. 5 A & B show the lug at different positions on the cam surface, Fig 6 is an enlarged radial view of a lug on the male connector,

Fig.7 shows an exploded isometric view of a length of slot drain having a connector according to the present invention, and Fig. 8 shows an isometric view of one end of an assembled slot drain as shown in Fig. 7,

Detailed Description of the Invention

With reference to Figures 1 to 3, there is shown a pipe connector 1 1 which comprise a female half connector 12 and a male connector 13. The male half connector 13 and a female half connector 12 are secured together by a bayonet type latching mechanism. In the present example the male half connector 13 comprises a cylindrical body 14 having a plurality of radial lugs 15 provided on the outer cylindrical surface of the body 14. As shown in Fig. 2, the male half connector 13 comprises one of two male half connectors 13 arranged back to back with a radial flange 16 therebetween. The female half connector 12 is in the form of an annular ring like body 20 in which the body 14 of the male half connector is telescopic sliding fit.

The plurality of radially extending lugs 15 are formed integrally on the male half connector body and in use co-operate with a cam ring 21 formed integrally on the radially inner surface of the female half connector. The cam ring has at least one respective axially directed cam surface 22 thereon for each lug, each cam surface 22 having an axially opening 23 to receive a respective lug 15 and leading axially inwardly away from the opening 23 to a detent 24, so that axial insertion of said lugs 15 followed by relative rotation of the two half connectors 12 and 13 causes each lug 16 to move along the cam surface 22 to engage a respective detent 24. As shown, two back to back cam surfaces 22A, 22B extend away from each opening 23 towards a detent 24 so that the two half connectors 12 & 13 may be locked together by either relative clockwise or anti-clockwise movement.

Any number of lugs 15, respective openings 23 and cam surfaces 22 may be selected as is desired. Preferably the connector will typically be provided with between two and four lugs which are are equiangularly circumferentially spaced around the cylindrical body 14 of the half connector 13. In the preferred option, there are three lugs spaced around the male half connector for co-operation with three openings 23, cam surfaces 22 and detents on the female half connector.

As is best seen in Fig. 6 , each lug 15 has a triangular form when viewed radially with the apex 31 directed towards the opening 23 on interconnection of the two half connectors 12 & 13 to facilitate easy location and self alignment of the two half connectors. An indentation 33, preferably an arcuate indentation, is provided in the base 32 of the triangular lug to reduce the frictional contact between the lug 15 and a respective cam surface 22 and to facilitate deformation of the two base corners 34 of the triangular lug 15.

Referring also to Figures 4 and 5, the cam surfaces 22 are formed a cam ring 21 on the inner cylindrical surface of the body 20 and are substantially normal to the axis of rotation of the half connector 12 and extend circumferentially and axially inwardly away from an opening 23 to a detent 24. Each detent 24 comprises a notch formed in the cam ring 21 in which lug 15 is resiliently engagable. Each notch 24 comprises an axial step 28 which extends circumferentially having a width W to accept the full width of the base 32 of a triangular lug 15 and a radial step 29. The cam surfaces 22 are in the form of shallow S and Z curved surfaces which adjacent the opening 23 and detent 22 are normal to the axis of rotation.

To assemble the connector 1 1 from the two half connectors 12 & 13, the body 14 of the male half connecter is inserted into the female half connectot by passing the lug 15 through the openings 23. The initial relative rotation brings the lugs 15 onto the lower part of the cam surface ( or ramp) 22 as is shown in Fig 5 A . In this condition the root of the lugs align radially with the cam surface 22. As the relative rotation continues the lugs 15 ride up the respective ramps pulling in the male half coupling until the flange 16 abuts the body 20 of the female half coupling. During the movement of the lugs 15 up the respective ramps 22 a load is transferred from the female half connector to the lugs 15 . This build up of stress loads within the resilient lugs 15 may tend to deform the lugs 15 slightly causing the corners 34 to move apart from each other and also radially outwardly.

When the lugs align with the detent 24, the resilient nature of the male half connector caused the lugs 15 move into the detents 24 and engage the step 28 within the notch so that a claming load is applied to flange 16. Since the radial step 29 in the detent 24 has a radially inward facing sidewall 30 which is radially outward of the outer surface of the lugs 15, the corners 34 tend to deform radially outwardly to engage in the corners of the notch 24 locking the lug in place. This is shown in Fig. 5b.

Seals (not shown) may be provided to act between the two half connectors to form a substantially water tight joint.

The invention may also be realised by having lugs formed on the female half connector and cam surfaces and the detent on the male half connector.

The connectors 1 1 are particularly suitable for interconnecting lengths of pipe or drain of the type shown in Fig. 7, in which there is shown an isometric exploded drawing of a slot drain 60 for a linear slot drain system. The system is installed underground for the evacuation of surface water. The slot drain 10 comprises a drain pipe 61 having a body 62 with a substantially circular section passage 63 extending longitudinally through the body 62 and a throat 64 which opens into the passage 63_. The throat 64 comprise a lower part 65 which secured in use to the body 62 and which is topped by an upper part 66. The ends of the throat 64 may further include a pair of connecting elements 67 and a pair of locking spacers 68. The body 62 has two end faces 69 at its opposite ends which are each provided with a circular recesses 71 which fs coaxϊal with the passage 63. The female half connectors 12 according to the present invention are each secured by welding or adhesive in a respective recess 71.

Referring also to Fig. 8 also, there is show the slot drain 60 as assembled with a connector 11 in situ. When two lengths of slot drain 60 are joined end to end through the connectors 1 1, the drain pipe bodies 62 are aligned with each other through the connectors and may be locked together by relative rotation in either direction . The flange 16 separating the two male half connectors 13 prevents axially movement as the axially load is placed on the connector.

The drain pipe 2 and throat 14, connectors 12,13 , connecting elements 17 and spacers 18 may all be formed from a suitable plastics material by any suitable thermoforming process e.g. extrusion and injection mqulding.

Claims

1 A connector comprising a male half connector and a female half connector which are interconnected by a bayonet type latching mechanism comprising a plurality of radially extending lugs formed on one of the male and female half connectors which co-operate with a cam ring formed on the other half connector, the cam ring having a respective pair of axially directed cam surfaces thereon for each lug, each pair of cam surfaces being arranged back to back on each side of an axial opening and each cam surface extending inwardly away from the opening towards a detent so that axial insertion of said lugs into said openings followed by relative rotation of the two half connectors , either clockwise or anti- clockwise , causes each lug to move along a cam surface to engage a respective detent

2 A connector as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the lugs are preferably equiangularly circumferentially spaced around the respective half connector

3 A connector as claimed in Claim 2, wherein there are three lugs spaced around the connector

4 A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the lugs have a triangular form when viewed radially with the apex directed towards the opening on insertion to facilitate easy location and self alignment of the two half connectors

5. A connector as claimed in Claim 6, wherein an indentation is provided in the base of the triangle to reduce the frictional contact between the lug and a respective cam surface and to facilitate deformation of the two base corners of the triangular lug

6. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 5, wherein the cam surfaces are in the form of curved surfaces lying in a substantially radial plane and the detent includes an axial step formed in the cam ring and with which the lug is resiliently engagable.

7. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 6, wherein the cam surfaces are in the form of arcuate surfaces lying in a substantially radial plane and the detent includes a radial step formed in the cam ring and with which the lug is resiliently engagable.

8. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 7, wherein the lugs are provided on the male half connector and the cam ring is formed on the female half connector.

9. A connector as Claimed in Claim 8, wherein the male half connector comprises one of two male half connectors arranged back to back with a radial flange therebetween.

10 A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 9, wherein the female connector comprises an annular body with the cam ring formed on the radially inner surface thereof

1 1 A pipe body having a connector as Claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 10.

12. A pipe body as claimed in Claim 1 1, in which the female half connector is -secured m a circular recess formed in an end face of said body , the male half connector being connectable with said respective female half connector.

13. A slot drainage system in which lengths of drain are interconnected by connectors as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 1 1.