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Pipes & Bends
A Guide to Pipes & Bends
Marissa
Bending involves far more than
grabbing a pipe and partnering up with your coworker. Bending pipes in
critical systems requires specifications, a knowledge of the fluid passing
through the pipe and much more.
Knowing more about the various ways
to properly bend pipe and applying it correctly is crucial to your crew, both
for building new piping systems the right way and for troubleshooting issues in
the future.
A bend is a bend?
You might hear an engineer or
technician using the terms bends and elbows interchangeably. However, they
are not the same.
A bend is a generic term that
describes an offset or change in the direction of piping.
“Elbow” represents a real engineering term supported by
classifications of either a 90- or 45-degree bend with a short or long radius.
Bends are generally made to meet
unique needs, whereas elbows are usually pre-fabricated to a standard and are
available off the shelf.
To clarify even more simply, all elbows are bends, but not
all bends are elbows.
Short and long radius bends
Understanding short and long radius
is simple enough. The difference lies in the length and curvature of the elbow.
The long radius standard is 1.5 times the nominal diameter of
the pipe.
A shorter radius will give the piping a sharp turn, which
will produce more friction in the piping. If high pressure is present, create
more long radius bends or fewer bends altogether.
Design
considerations
Knowing those differences should
direct your system design.
Designing prefabricated elbows into a system can save time
because you don’t need to bend anything yourself. However, off-the-shelf parts
may cost more.
It also reduces the amount of
mistakes made during the build.
If you’re buying pipe system supplies from a reputable
manufacturer, you won’t need to worry about parts missing the mark.
If the shop you operate owns the
right equipment and your crew knows how to use it, you can save some money by
cutting and bending your own pieces, which brings flexibility to system
designs.
Those are both good things, but they require good
equipment and a highly skilled staff.
Miter bends
Miter bends are seen in air ducts and
other light duty applications.
This bend is made by cutting pipe ends at differing angles
to create a 90-degree or 45-degree bend. The pieces are joined by welding.
As you might be able to guess, a miter bend would not work
well with fluid or another high-pressure application.
Professionals with the ability to
make proper bends and elbows hone their skills after years of practice. It’s a
precision task.
Don’t try to do this yourself without expert guidance and
training, or you might run into serious problems and costs later down the road.
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