Parker Instrumentation has achieved what it believes is a breakthrough in tube fittings for liquid and gas instrumentation systems, with the launch of its “rapid assembly” design that will handle pressures up to 15,000 PSI. Based on the familiar, industry-standard compression technique – which allows a fitting to be installed in seconds by simply tightening a nut – the new fittings eliminate the time-consuming “coning and threading” practices that usually need to be performed in the field when applying traditional high-pressure fittings.
Among the application sectors that can benefit from this innovation are deepwater oil and gas drilling, and industrial laboratories where products are developed and tested under extreme conditions. Instrumentation engineers working in areas such as these can now assemble tubing systems in a tiny fraction of the time previously required. They also avoid the need for specialised training in installing traditional high-pressure fittings, and the close attention to quality control procedures typically required during assembly.
Dubbed MPI, Parker’s new tube fitting range is available in a range of instrumentation sizes to suit tubing with outside diameters from 1/4 to 1 inch, and in a variety of shapes and flow arrangements including straight connections, elbow and tee joints, bulkhead unions, reducers and adapting interfaces. The fittings may be used on cold-drawn hard (unannealed) 316 stainless steel tubing, or thick-walled (annealed) instrumentation-grade 316 tubing. The fittings also feature nuts coated with molybdenum disulphide, which provides a long-lasting lubricant to help prevent thread galling, and reduces the torque required to create the seal – easing both assembly and the remaking of joints.
