What is a Quickflange?
Introduction
Quickflange (QF) is a product of Norwegian origin and has been developed with involvement of Oil and Gas industry organisations such Statoil, Det Norske Veritas (DNV) and ABS. They have made significant inputs to the design of test programmes and the test criteria set, to prove the product's performance and integrity capabilities. Many customers have also dictated specific test programmes to ensure usability on a range of applications.
Quickflange is intended, and accredited as, a direct replacement for a welded flange, allowing the user to avoid welding / hotwork and complete installations in a fraction of the time taken to weld - without any reduction in performance. Since its introduction in 2003 Quickflange has seen its usage grow to over 5,000 applications with increased usage to bigger sizes, rating and criticality including materials from Carbon steel, Cunifer, Stainless steel, Monel, 6MO etc.
The technology also offers unrivalled flexibility in terms of cost, as all installation tooling is reusable and provided on a rental basis with scope for interchange ability, and long term hire packages.
How it works?
The standard QF range is a modified standard weld neck flange, with a patented internal groove(s) pattern machined into it. The QF flange is slid over the pipe end and activated with a coldforging tool. There is no spark or heat generated in the activation process, which takes up to 15 minutes to complete for the largest sizes (14inch) and far less for small sizes. The flange design is very simple (as seen below) with a pure metal-to-metal seal, and no moving parts, balls, springs, slips, seals or gaskets.
The cold-forging tool forces the pipe wall into the grooves and this simultaneously affects the seal and grip on the pipe. The connector has an end stop to ensure correct installation position.
