Improving Coupling Performance 

And the pneumatic component is safer

Dennis Mori is big on reliability. The Genie Industries engineer supervises the fabrication and assembly of aerial work platforms, lifts, and other rough-terrain equipment used on construction sites. His products have to be reliable for the safety of the construction crews that work at heights several stories in the air on the Genie work platforms.

Mori also expects the equipment used for making Genie products at his plant to be reliable. So, when his existing pneumatic couplers started seizing up on pneumatic hand tools spread throughout the plant, he started looking around for a better alternative. “The old couplers would seize up and we couldn‘t remove impact guns and other hand tools,” says Mori. “The same thing would happen on fixtures and other tools that used pneumatically operated clamps. It was a pain to get tools off and back on so that people could get back to their work.”

Difficulties with pneumatically operated hand tools left Mori concerned with reliability of the coupler to consistently work in a safe and effective manner. “There wasn’t a safety problem, but we realized that if we switched to Parker Hannifin Tool-Mate couplers we could also eliminate any potential for hose whip during tool disconnection.”

The previous coupler design typically used a sleeve with two internal o-rings that traveled over an inner cylinder with holes bored in it. If the o-rings covered up the holes, the coupler would keep pressure to the nipple. Sliding the sleeve to effect disconnection from a nipple moved the o-rings off the holes, venting air to the atmosphere. 

The Tool-Mate coupler has a safety exhaust system that allows all downstream air to vent off before disconnection. “The coupler incorporates a double nipple locking system that prevents the nipple from totally releasing from the coupler during phase one of the disconnect action — pulling the sleeve backward,” explains Shawn Ellis, a Parker-Hannifin design engineer. This motion allows the air to bleed out before the nipple is totally released from the coupler. Not until phase two — pushing the sleeve forward — is the nipple actually allowed to release from the coupler. 

“Tool-Mate works well in this application due to the limited number of sliding components and seals that could dry up and stick,” says Ellis. Tool-Mate exhaust couplers meet the ISO 4414 specifications. Word of their reliability in use by Mori’s crew has spread to other departments and plants within the company.

—RM

For more information:
Genie Industries,
www.rsleads.com/312df-241

Parker Hannifin,
www.rsleads.com/312df-242