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Tri Clover Fittings
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Howdy,
I've been a lurker here for some time - came across this recently and thought it might be interesting/useful. While looking for some info on brewing, I found these "tri clover fittings": They seem to be standard in brewing/dairy plant, and look very similar to the KF vacuum fittings (genderless flanges, O-ring, and clamp). They're polished for hygenic reasons, so I guess would do well for vacuum. Most importantly they're dirt cheap! Maybe you know about them already, but they're totally new to me (in the UK, where we seem to be behind the times....) Incidentally, no relation to the "tri laser connector" that Bones used to fix Spock's brain ;-) Cheers, Lindsay |
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Gomez Addams
On Feb 15, 2013, at 3:53 AM, imajeenyus42 wrote:
Howdy,The first issue I foresee is the o-ring material. If the seals are standard O-rings, great, then you can just order Viton O-rings. But I thought those fittings used custom seals with odd cross-sections. Another possibility to think about is that they don't have to be absolutely gas-tight for dairy operations, small leaks may be permitted. Another thing to think about: for the most part, high vacuum fittings are designed such that when assembled together, very little "trapped" volume remains in the conjoined system, that is, space that is connected to the pumped volume, but has low conductance, IOW, "nooks and crannies". But I agree that these do resemble KFs an awful lot, and I'm going to start comparing prices out of curiosity - if they are drastically cheaper than what I can get from Duniway et al, then an experimental purchase and test would seem in order! - Bill "Gomez" Lemieux, The Highland Tinker |
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýPlease keep us informed of what you find, they do seem a fraction of the price of "proper" vacuum fittings. You make good points about trapped volume leaks and seals though. Hope they work out. The maximum temperature of "rubber" seals, O-rings, etc. is important for baking out too.Don Black. On 16-Feb-13 3:26 AM, Gomez Addams wrote: ? |
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýHowdy,Sigh...you're right. Here's a high-res photo of some gaskets: They look mainly flat, with a ridged part around them, and the flanges have an O-ring groove in them. I suppose the advantage of that is you don't need a centering ring like with KF flanges. You can get Buna-N (nitrile) gaskets easily, and fortunately some sites (found one EBay store ) sell Viton gaskets. Could be, although I would've thought that for hygienic reasons they'd ensure there's no places where stuff could get trapped or porosity. The large flat gaskets might give rise to this. Would be very interested to hear how it goes! It turns out I can get them in the UK, just searching under "tri clamp fitting" instead. On a related hardware topic, have you ever come across the convoluted metal hose used for domestic gas main installations? Stuff like this - Maybe things are different in the US, but there's always a bit of that stuff used between the gas main and house regulator. It looks to be very nice for vacuum use - not quite as flexible as proper vacuum bellows tubing, but still pretty good. Also see ebay for "flexible exhaust" - for example item 230830064598. Again, bellows tubing just like that used for vacuum. No ends unfortunately! Cheers, Lindsay
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