Undersea hydraulic coupling for use with manifold plates
An undersea hydraulic coupling is disclosed having tails on both the male and female members to allow insertion through and attachment to manifold plates. The tails on the hydraulic coupling members are provided with substantially rigid positioning members to allow the coupling members to be held in a nominal position with respect to the manifold plate, thereby preventing galling when the coupling members are mated, and further preventing unnecessary crimping or pressure weakened points at the connection of the tail to hydraulic lines.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to hydraulic couplings, and specifically to hydraulic couplings used in undersea drilling and production applications. More particularly, the invention involves an alignment system designed to provide proper alignment when the male and/or female member of a hydraulic coupling is attached to a manifold plate.
2. Description of Related Art
Subsea hydraulic couplings are old in the art. The couplings generally consist of a male member and a female member with sealed fluid passage ways connecting there between. The female member generally is a cylindrical body with a relatively large diameter longitudinal bore at one end and a relatively small diameter longitudinal bore or tail at the other. The tail facilitates insertion through manifold plates, and connections to hydraulic lines, while the large bore seals, and slidingly engages, the male member of the coupling. The male member includes a cylindrical portion at one-end having an outer diameter approximately equal to the diameter of the large bore in the female member of the coupling. The male member also includes a tail connection at its other end to facilitate insertion through a manifold plate, and connection to hydraulic lines. When the cylindrical portion of the male member is inserted into the large bore of the female member, according to various embodiments of the device, fluid flow is established between the male and female members.
Typically, both the female and male portion of the hydraulic coupling have each been fixedly attached to manifold plates. The manifold plates are brought together to mate the hydraulic coupling. Hydraulic lines are attached to the distal end of the female and male couplings on the opposite side of each manifold plate.
Generally in the past, the manifold plates and the associated hydraulic coupling portions have been arranged such that the coupling portion is in a vertical or near vertical position. Additionally, the coupling portions in prior art systems have been screwed into threads inside holes cut through the manifold plates. The process of threading the manifold plates requires precision machining and is expensive and time consuming. What is needed is a way to cut plain, unthreaded holes through the manifold plates to connect hydraulic coupling portions there through. However, when the manifold plates are positioned such that the hydraulic coupling portions extend from the manifold plate at a significantly non-vertical angle, unless the fit between the manifold plate and the hydraulic coupling is precision cut for an exact fit, the hydraulic coupling portion will misalign or sag. If that occurs, two adverse effects occur. First when the manifold plates containing the male and female members are brought together, because the couplings are not lined up properly, galling can occur reducing the ability to maintain pressurized fluid integrity. Second, when the hydraulic lines are connected to the distal ends of the male and female coupling portions, if the couplings are not perpendicular to the manifold plate it will cause the hydraulic line to bend or crimp. This can cause an early fail point in the hydraulic line.
What is needed is a hydraulic coupling that can be used in manifold plates having a smooth bore hole larger than the outer bore of the portion of the coupling to be inserted through the manifold plate, wherein the hydraulic coupling has an alignment system causing it to remain substantially perpendicular to the hydraulic plate no matter what position the hydraulic plate is in.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention provides a tail on the non-coupling end of both a male and female member of a hydraulic coupling device. The tail is machined to fit through pre-cut, holes in a manifold plate. The clearance between the outer diameter of the tail and the inner diameter of the hole in the manifold plate is such that the tail will fit easily through the hole. The tail has positioning members on its outer diameter that when inserted fully into the hole in the manifold the positioning members compress to an interference fit which will hold the coupling in a nominal, substantially perpendicular, position to the manifold plate. Additionally, the retaining ring that holds the tail in place in the hole in the manifold plate can also have a positioning member that compresses against the manifold plate opposite of the male or female end of the coupling to hold the coupling in a nominal position to the plate.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe following drawings form part of the present specification and are included to further demonstrate certain aspects of the present invention. The invention may be better understood by reference to one or more of these drawings in combination with the detailed description of specific embodiments presented herein.
In
The o-rings of this embodiment are one type of a substantially rigid positioning member. The o-rings are not for the purpose of sealing, and are not required to main seal integrity. As those of skill in the art will note, the o-rings 30 of this embodiment may be replaced with any element that provides enough give to allow the tail 18 to be inserted, but enough rigidity to hold the male member 14 nominal. Additionally, rather than having o-rings around the circumference of the tail 18, there could be fins that run longitudinally on the tail or any other suitable arrangement.
As shown in
Those of skill in the art will understand that portions of each of these embodiments may be combined or eliminated to create substantially equivalent embodiments to meet the objectives of the present invention to prevent cantilevering of hydraulic coupling components attached to hydraulic plates with fixed attachment such as with a threaded connection.
Claims
1. An undersea hydraulic coupling member comprising:
- (a) a tail;
- (b) at least one substantially rigid positioning member associated with the tail, wherein the substantially rigid positioning members are in contact with the inner bore of a manifold plate when the tail is inserted through the manifold plate.
2. The undersea hydraulic coupling member of claim 1 wherein the substantially rigid positioning member is an o-ring.
3. The undersea hydraulic coupling member of claim 1 wherein the substantially rigid positioning member is elastomeric.
4. The undersea coupling member of claim 1 further comprising a retaining ring to attach the hydraulic coupling member to the manifold plate.
5. The undersea coupling member of claim 4 wherein the retaining ring is held in place with a snap ring contained in a groove in the tail.
6. The undersea coupling member of claim 5 wherein the tail has at least two grooves for containing the snap ring to accommodate manifold plates of different thicknesses.
7. An undersea hydraulic coupling member comprising:
- (a) a tail;
- (b) at least one substantially rigid positioning member associated with the tail, wherein the substantially rigid positioning members are in contact with the inner bore of a manifold plate when the tail is inserted through the manifold plate; and
- (c) a retainer ring with a substantially rigid positioning member associated with the face of the retainer ring that will engage with the manifold plate.
8. The undersea hydraulic coupling member of claim 7 wherein the substantially rigid positioning members are o-rings.
9. The undersea hydraulic coupling member of claim 7 wherein the substantially rigid positioning members are elastomeric.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 6, 2003
Publication Date: Apr 7, 2005
Inventor: Robert Smith (Missouri City, TX)
Application Number: 10/679,908