Plumbing

Common types and methods of plumbing pipe fitting

Plumbing Pipefittingand adapter is a straight section of pipe used in the pipe system for manipulating the conveyance of water, gas, or liquid waste in domestic and commercial purpose.

Fitting is the most essential part of plumbing pipe fitting system. The valves must be fit technically strong and ensure there is no leakage.

Piping Materials

  • Types of material used for making pipe are
  • PVC – Poly Vinyl Chloride
  • CPVC – Chlorinated Poly Vinyl Chloride
  • Carbon steel and galvanized steel
  • Malleable Iron
  • Stainless Steel
  • Chrome Molybdenum alloy steel
  • High-Density Polyethylene and toughened glass

These are the materials used for pipe manufacturing. Piping is usually inserted into the fitting to make connections. The connectors are being abbreviated as M or F which are assigned correspondingly for perfect fitting.

Commonly used plumbing piping fitting

The fittings used in pressurized piping systems and some overlap with fittings for low pressure or non-pressure is needed in plumbing piping fitting. Here are a few common types of fittings.

Adapter: It fits generally with two dissimilar parts. The adapter parts include expansion adapter, mechanical joint adapter, bell adapter, flange adapter, etc. These connect the pipes of different parts to different size and for wider length. Adapter spool called cross over spool is widely used in oilfields and pressure control.

Elbow: Elbow is installed between two pipes to change the direction of the interior material to the prescribed form. Shorter radius elbow and longer radius elbow are available. It is available in 90 degrees, 45 degrees and 22.5-degree elbow angle.

These elbows of 90-degree angle are attached readily to the plumbing piping fitting materials like plastic, copper, steel, lead, and iron. 45-degree elbow or bend is used in water supply and water connection pipes. It is also used in air conditioning pipe, agriculture, and electronics industries.

Short radius elbow is usually used in the high-pressure system whereas long radius elbow is used in the low-pressure system and low gravity-fed system.

Coupling

Coupling is a connector which connects two pipes of the same size and different size. There are two types of coupling are used in plumbing pipe fittings regularly and slip.

Regular coupling is a small ridge that stops internally, whereas a slip coupling also called as repair coupling is made without internal stop. It is used to prevent leakage, displacement, and corrosion. The location of the slip coupling must be ensured correctly.

Tee:This is the most common plumbing pipe fitting used to combine and divide the flow of the fluid and change the direction. Tees may be equal or unequal in size which connects up to three connections.

Plastic Pipe:

Plastic pipes are cheap to purchase and easy to install however it cannot be used for commercial environments. In the case of hot water flow and outdoor connections, copper materials are the best choice. This is durable and long-lasting.

Sealing

Cement pipe has a poor sealing property and concrete are rigid pipe and cause major damage to the connecting part. Copper and Plastic plumbing pipe fitting are the best materials used for fitting which provides long life and durable. The life of plastic and copper stands for 50-100 years which cannot be replaced by cement as it has the lifetime value of just 15 years.

Plumbing pipe fitting has properties of lightweight, longer life, fewer pipe joints, easy to install, easy to transport, and lower construction cost.