The present invention concerns a method for moun- ting moisture atomisation nozzles on metallic high-pressure pipe especially for high-pressure cooling plants in cowsheds or other buildings where it is desirable to bring about a combined cooling and humidifying of the air by the injection of atomised water in the air space. This demands considerable water pressure in the high-pressure pipe, for example in the order of 60-80 bar or more, and for precisely this reason it is natural for use to be made of metal pipes, which even in thin-walled configuration can withstand such high pressures.

The injection of atomised water into a cowshed pro- vides an effective cooling of the air by the evaporation of the fine water particles, and it is normal practice that such an injection is arranged at strategic places in the cowshed in according with various criteria. Use is normally made of quite thin, stainless steel pipes, and they are provided with nozzles to suit individual needs. The mounting of the nozzles has hitherto been troublesome, in that this is effected, for example, by the soldering or welding on of stubs, the cutting of threads in pipe holes after drilling and collaring, or the drilling of holes and subsequent mounting of various clamping means, i. e. methods which are best suited for factory imple- mentation.

This requires extra thorough planning of the posi- tioning of the nozzles and also great care in the production phase, and there will inevitably arise cases where the selec- ted equipment still does not correspond to the requirements when finally mounted.

In light of this, with the invention it has been found that great advantages are offered by providing an al-

ternative solution which makes it possible to arrange the mounting of the nozzles at the actual mounting site, comple- tely without factory participation.

It should be noted, for example, that in connection with overhead moisturising plants, it is known to use pipes of plastic, which are pressure-loaded to a far lesser degree and which with simple means can be mounted with branching me- ans. In US-A-5,694,972, it is thus disclosed that a branching can be established by fastening a threaded socket at a desi- red place on the piping by means of a clamp around the pipe, after which a coupling piece with a hollow, side-perforating tip can be tightened in for perforation of the wall of the pipe, and hereby automatically form radial sealing against the hole produced as this is gradually expanded to its final size. Such a technique does not find practical application in connection with a mounting of nozzles on the high-pressure pipes which are relevant here.

However, with the invention it has been recognised that it is possible, in a purely craftsman-like manner, to effect such local preparations of a thin-walled high-pressure pipe, so that the mounting of nozzles can be carried out at any desired place on, for example, such an already mounted pipe, i. e. with concrete regard being paid to the practical conditions for the positioning of the nozzles, and consequ- ently without being bound to a possibly incorrect planning.

The decisive aspect of the invention is that in the said pre- parations, use can be made of a hand-held tool with which it is possible to effect such a locally indented deformation of the wall of the thin, metallic pipe, that this is pressed in for perforation, and partly for the formation of an annular facet area around the perforation, so that this surrounding facet area, regardless of whether it is plane or conical, can thereafter serve as a seating for the nozzle-bearing coupling part, which provided with a sealing ring is tightened in

against the deformation area by means of a suitable tighte- ning or clamping ring for mounting around the pipe at the mounting point, even including by use of known clamping me- ans. When the deformation tool has means for the rear-and side-support of the prepared pipe, the desired local deforma- tion can be finalised without any other general deformation of the pipe, and the next mounting task thus becomes the tightening-in of the said coupling part for surface sealing against the depression formed in the pipe. Work is effected, of course, with a rather high pressure in the pipe, but the necessary contact area can be of a very modest extent, where- by an effective securing can be arranged by means of simple clamping means on the pipe itself.

The deformation tool can be coupled to a drive mo- tor such a drilling or screwing machine, but with the inven- tion it has been found sufficient to use a purely hand- operated tool in the shape of suitably formed tongs with a relatively long operating handle, e. g. as on a pair of hedge shears. The tool should be provided with contact means which, for a given pipe dimension, ensure that the pipe deformation can not be executed further than to a well-defined extent de- termined by the operator.

The clamping means for the coupling part can be configured in any suitable manner, but in connection with the invention there has been developed a special, easily mounta- ble coupling part in the form of an injection-moulded item with an outstanding socket part for the accommodation of a calibrated nozzle insert, and with a perforated skirt part for projection in over the pipe to enable hook parts on the coupling part to be twisted into holding engagement with the side of the pipe opposite the area of deformation. These hook parts are preferably configured with projecting, channel- formed wing parts which can abut up against the rear of the

pipe, and be cut off at an angle to ease the turning in of the coupling part.

In the following, the invention is explained in mo- re detail with reference to the drawing, in which fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a cowshed with high-pressure cooling plant, fig. 2 is a perspective view of a pressure pipe and a tool for providing holes therein, fig. 3 is a sectional view of the pipe and the tool in operative position, fig. 4 is a sectional view of the pipe and the tool, fig. 5 and 6 are perspective views of a nozzle hol- der for mounting on the pipe, fig. 7 and 8 are plan views for the illustration of the mounting of the nozzle holder on the pressure pipe, fig. 9 is a sectional view of the finally mounted nozzle holder with nozzle element inserted, and fig. 10 and 11 are illustrations of a tool accor- ding to the invention.

Fig. 1 shows a cowshed with chimney pipes A and wall-mounted air valves B with not-shown dampers which, by means of a draw-wire C, can be controlled from a control sta- tion D. The cowshed is also provided with a pumping station E, which through high-pressure pipe F pumps water at a pres- sure of e. g. 70 bar out to a series of highly-placed ato- mising nozzles G which, at strategic places, inject the ato- mised water into the air space which is hereby significantly cooled by the evaporation of the water. The relevant strate- gic places can be quite critical in various respects, and quite often it is experienced that the pre-selected positions of some of the nozzles G are not entirely expedient. In light of this, with the invention it is endeavoured to be able to effect the mounting of the nozzles in situ, i. e. with the

possibility after the laying-out of the pipes F of placing the nozzles while taking the actual conditions in the shed into full consideration.

In fig. 2 there is shown a part section of a pres- sure pipe 2 which is marked with points 4 in which it is de- sirable to establish transversally radiating atomisation noz- zles. These markings can also be made on a wall surface for mounting of the pipe, possibly with an indication of which direction in the vertical plane it is desirable to establish the emission from the nozzle. The pipe 2 is secured at a cer- tain distance from the supporting wall or possibly a sup- porting ceiling by means of holders 6.

There is hereby created the possibility that over the pipe 2 there can be placed a tool head in the form of a rectangular element 8, which as shown in fig. 3 is also con- figured with a side cut-out 10 for leading down over the pipe 2, said cut-out at its closed end having a forwardly- extending, semicircular recess 12 for the accommodation of the pipe 2. The tool head 8 is connected in a not-shown man- ner with a power-driven hand-tool such as a drilling machine 14 which, via a transfer unit 16, can bring about a forwards displacement of a shaft 18 with an outer pressure tool 20 in against the inwardly-facing side of the pipe 2.

The pressure tool 20 has a central, projecting tip 22 and a surrounding plane annular surface 24, and from here an annular surface 26 which extends further outwards in a concave arc. When this tool is pressed in against the pipe 2, the pipe will be deformed as shown in fig. 4, namely with a breaking-through 28 of the tip 22 of the tool, and with a plane annular area 30 around this breaking-through, while the said annular surface 26 on the tool 20 will create a gradual transition between this plane annular area and the rest of the pipe circumference, both in the radial as well as the longitudinal direction of the pipe.

Hereafter, the pipe will stand ready to receive the nozzle holders, precisely at the marked places 4.

A holder which can be used for this purpose is shown in figs. 5 and 6. The holder is configured as an in- jection-moulded plastic item 32 with a flat intermediate wall part 34 for contact against the plane pipe surface 30, and from this wall part with a central protruding stub part 36 for sealing penetration into or connection with the pipe break-through 28. At the outer side of the wall part 34 there is provided a protruding, internally threaded pipe stub 38 which is designed to accommodate a nozzle insert, which can hereby be brought into flow connection with the pipe stub part 36. The stub 38 is configured with a pair of radially extending wing parts 40 which make it possible for the nozzle holder to be manually twisted in on the pipe 2.

On the opposite or internal side of the wall part 34, the holder is configured with an inwardly extending and partly cut-away skirt part 42, the cut-away part of which al- lows the holder to be inserted over the pipe 2 with the stub 38 in abutment against the break-through 28 in the pipe. The skirt 42 has two diametrically opposed, extending shell parts 44 which are almost semi-cylindrical in shape, in that the edge which faces in towards said cut-away part is smaller in height than the opposite edge.

The relationships are thus arranged so that it he- reby becomes possible for the holder to be turned in to a po- sition in which the shell parts 44 snap in under or behind the pipe 2 for securing the holder in said position of abut- ment. As indicated, it is hereby sufficient for an operative abutment that the holder is twisted into place in a purely manual manner by use of the wings 40, cf. also figs. 7 and 8.

The mounted position is shown in fig. 9, which also shows that at the end of the stub part 36 there is housed a sealing ring 46 which tightens against the wall of the pipe

directly around the break-through 28 when the wall part 34 of the holder is in contact with the annular surface 30 on the pipe.

Fig. 9 also shows that in the threaded stub 38 the- re is screwed a nozzle element 48 with a calibrated nozzle channel 50, preferably with intermediate bedding of a filter element 52.

It must be mentioned that the tool head 8 can be provided with a spirit level or protractor, by means of which it is easy to determine the connection points for emission in the desired angular directions. The tool in itself can other- wise be configured in many different ways, including also as a pair of tongs for clamping together against the pipe and as a stationary tool for the processing of loose pipe lengths with pre-marked mounting points for the nozzles.

Figs. 9 and 10 show a preferred embodiment of the hand-tool for producing the said pipe deformations. The tool has an elongated guide housing 54 with closed front end 56 and rear end 58, and a foremost, fixedly mounted hand grip 60, and a corresponding rearmost hand grip 62 which is faste- ned to a link part 66 which is pivotal around a fixed, trans- verse pin 64. At 68, this link part 66 is in pivotal con- nection with a guide arm 70 which extends forwards to pivotal connection 72 with a plunger part 74, which at its front end houses a protruding pressure pin 76 which, in front of the plunger part 76, has an enlarged head part 78 and a pin 80 with a central, pointed tip 82. The pin 80 is housed in a bo- re in a block element 84 which foremost has a semi- cylindrical recess 86 directly behind a corresponding recess 88 in the front end part of the guide housing 54.

When the handle 62 is swung rearwards, the plunger part 74 is slid rearwards for the withdrawal of the block element 84, so that there is room through a slot 90 for the introduction of the front end of the tool over a pipe, which

thereafter will be clamped firmly in the recesses 86 and 88 when the block element 84 is moved forwards by the swinging forward of the handle 62. By further swinging forwards of this handle, the plunger part 74 is moved forwards, whereby the clamped pipe is perforated and deformed respectively by the pointed tip 82 and the pin 80. This effect is brought to an abrupt end when the head part 78 is brought into contact against the rear of the block element 84, whereby the opera- tor can clearly feel that the deformation has been concluded with necessary surety that it has not been driven further than prescribed.

The tool is shown provided with a fixedly mounted but adjustable spirit level 92.