The present invention comprises a system for closed transport of liquids or gases, alternatively to be utilized as a conduit channel system for electrical wires. The system comprises primarily piping conduits, coupling pieces and insulating elements, finish elements as well as cooling/heating ribs for the pipes, where all these elements can be assembled to a system in a simple manner _* The piping conduits can be designed specially as profiles for particular fields of utilization, and the system may also comprise components for establishing connections or transitions to other prior art systems or armatures.

Existing piping systems require the use of mounting details for fixing the conduits to a support if it is impossible for various reasons to provide hidden line conduits. Said mounting details and the fact that the pipes must be mounted spaced from the support because it must be possible to have access for tools, give these piping constructions an unestetical appearance. If it is possible to lay down hidden conduits, this may also be inconvenient in those cases where damages may occur in the installation, e.g. frost damages. In order to locate the damage and repair it, it is often necessary to open the building element into which the pipe in question has been laid down. Besides, a leakage is not always located in the same spot where it is detected. Therefore, in many cases comprehensive measures are required regarding the building itself, which usually gives large extra costs.

Using the piping conduit system in accordance with the present invention, it is achieved that a conduit installation can be mounted in a visible manner, directly upon any type of support, and in any milieu. The important point of the invention is just the milieu adaptation, i.e. the piping conduit system of the invention can be introduced in an introduced in an estetical manner in an already existing interior which otherwise would be disfigured by a piping installation and in addition there are provided rather clear advantages in connection with possible repairs at a later time. The piping

system is very well adapted for re-installing operations, and it is inter alia possible to solve the large problems connected with installing sprinkler systems in existing buildings. As a matter of particular relevance, new possibilites arise in connection with preserved buildings. As previously mentioned, the visible installation has its clear advantages regarding detecting and repearing leakages, since leakages are detected very simply and can be repaired both rapidly and simply.

These advantages are realized by means of the technical design and the assembling manner of the parts of the conduit system, giving the possibility of providing a re-installable piping conduit system which can be introduced into an interior milieu without disturbing said milieu.

The above mentioned advantages are achieved in accordance with the invention by providing a piping conduit system of the type which appears from the enclosed patent claims.

As a starting point, the system consists of piping conduits and coupling pieces having a low profile, protruding very little from the support surface. The conduit, which preferably can be manufactured from extrudable materials, e.g. aluminum or plastic materials, is equipped with longitudinal installation flanges, and can therefore be mounted directly against the support by means of nails, screws, glue or double-sided tape. The cross section shape of the conduit is approximately square or rectangular, however deviates somewhat from such a shape by a skew arrangement of the "outer sides". Actually, the cross section shape is of a trapezium type. Several distinct pipes can be arranged next to each other in one conduit as required in connection with the use in question, preferably with longitudinally arranged interconnecting portions which provide a transverse connection between the separate pipes and provide a unit conduit with several pipe courses. Thus, the exterior outer walls of the pipe conduit or of the two pipes arranged on the outer sides of a multipipe unit, are designed with an inward slant down toward the longitudinal flanges, with the intention of enabling a snap-on mounting operation when mounting insulating elements, finish elements and cooling/heating ribs on the conduit. The insulating and finish elements are shaped and

coloured so as to achieve the best possible conformity with the support surface. For example, it is possible to provide finish elements with wooden exterior layers, which are adaptable in a simple manner to all types of paneling, possibly other types of wall finish products by colouring the conduit woodwork.

The coupling pieces exist in accordance with the invention in two main types. One type works as.a pure quick-coupling where the conduit ends, which are without installation flanges, are pushed into the coupling piece from each respective side, and where the coupling is fixed by ≤qeezing the coupling piece between the ends of the installation flanges. Thereafter, the conduit is fixed to the support in the same manner as mentioned previously.

The other type of coupling piece consists of a base part into which the conduit ends are placed from each respective sid and a top part which is mounted to the base part by screwing, and which top part presses the conduit ends against the surroun ding packings. The top part is primarily used when it is desirable to provide a branch-off or to turn the conduit through an angle. Such a top part can be equipped with all those transition devices, fittings and electrical connections which are known in the utilization fields mentioned in the introduction.

The invention shall now be described closer by means of embodiment examples and with reference to the enclosed drawings where fig. 1 shows the profile of a single pipe conduit, fig. 2 shows the profile of a three-pipe conduit, fig. 3 shows a section through a conduit coupling with a coupling piece of the quick-coupling type, fig. 4 shows in a skew perspective a conduit coupling with a two-part coupling piece of the type used in branching-off and turning, fig. 5 shows the same conduit as in fig. 1, however with an insulating element mounted thereon, fig. 6 shows the conduit with a finish element mounted thereon, and

fig. 7 shows the same conduit with cooling/heating ribs mounted thereon, intended to be used as a heating element or as a cooling element.

Those embodiment examples appearing from fig. 1 and fig. 2 show conduit profile types which are preferably extruded from an extrudable material selected in accordance with the intended field of use of the conduit. Both in fig. 1 and in fig. 2 the longitudinal installation flanges are shown with reference numeral 1. The conduit in fig. 1 has two external limiting walls 2, i.e. those walls which are most closely adjacent to installation flanges 1, and the external walls 2 are not perpendicular to the installation flanges, but are arranged with a slight slanting angle, in such a manner that the upper of the two parallel limiting surfaces have a larger width than the lower one. The conduit can be installed upon a support, for example a wall, by means of the longitudinal installation flanges 1, by drilling therethrough for screwing, or by nailing, or by using glue or double-stick tape.

The point regarding the outer slanting pipe walls 2 will appear in figs. 5, 6 and 7. In fig. 6 is shown a conduit as it will appear in a ready-installed state, namely with a finish element 15 mounted thereon. The interior cross section of the cover element is adapted to the trapezium-shaped construction of the outer side of the conduit itself, in such a manner that the cover element 15 quite simply can be snapped onto the conduit from the top/outside after having installed the conduit on e.g. a wall by means of the installation flanges 1. The finish element thereby also substantially covers the installa¬ tion flanges, thereby imparting to the complete conduit a shape which is very well adapted to the milieu, since the external finish of the finish element 15 is adapted to this milieu.

Thus, the finish element 15 can quite simply be snapped onto the conduit and pulled off again when such a need should arise, since the element has the necessary form and elasticity to achieve such an effect.

In fig. 5 an insulating element 11 is shown which insulating element can be snapped onto the conduit in a quite

similar manner as the finish element 15, thereby providing both insulation and milieu adaptation.

In a corresponding manner, in fig. 7, there are shown cooling/heating ribs 18 with an adapted inner profile 19 for collective attachment -of the ribs 18 to the conduit. Such ribs one to the conduit, and in such a case each ndividual rib must have an inner cut-out, which is adapted to the trapezium shape of the-*conduit, and it must exhibit the necessary elasticity. However, in order to manufac¬ ture cooling/heating ribs by means of ,an extrusion process, such ribs must be placed longitudinally instead of in a transverse arrangement, and in such a case obviously on an inner profile exhibiting the necessary complementary trapezium cross section shape.

In cases where it is desirable with several pipe courses in parallel next to each other, a construction of the type shown in fig. 2 can be selected. Fig. 2 shows an embodiment with three courses, and it should be noted that the two outer pipes in this case are equipped with the necessary slanted exterior surface 2. In the case shown, the central pipe has a rectangular cross section, and the inwardly facing outer surfaces of the outer pipes are substantially perpendicularly arranged on the bottom surfape, which also comprises two interconnecting portions keeping the pipes together as a unit. Such an embodiment is appropriate for example when cold and hot water shall be delivered t ^a wash stand, and discharge water shall be returned from the same place. The complete arrangement can then be placed in an esthetic manner in the milieu in question, covered by a milieu-adapted finish element which grips the outer surfaces 2 and covers the installation flanges 1. An insulating element may alternatively be arranged in the same manner, and the interior shape of the insulating element is suitably adapted to the exterior shape of the profile with several pipe courses.

Such multipipe conduit profiles may also transport water, pressurized air and accomodate electrical wiring to work stations.

Constructing the conduit profiles with a typically low profile is rather appropriate, for with such low profiles, e.g.. as shown in the figures, the conduit system is particularly well adapted for re-installation of e.g. sprinkler systems in preserved buildings etc. , because a very estethical appearance is achieved which to a large degree may blend into the surroun¬ dings when the finish elements have been installed.

Thus, in general the conduit profile has outer external sides 2 which are slanted, and insulating elements 11, finish elements 15 and cooling/heating ribs 18 are fixed thereto by means of inner plates 13 , 14 , 19 adapted in such a manner that these elements can be snapped onto the conduit. The insulating element 11 and the finish element 15 may optionally be equipped with upper reinforcement plates 20, 21 with a coating of coloured material, e.g. plastics or veneer, enabling a very good adaptation of the conduits to the surroundings, both as to colour and as to the shape desirable for the conduit system in each particular case. The cooling/heating ribs 18 have several fields of use where cooling or heating takes place by means of liquids or gases, for example as a heating element in vehicles where the engine cooling water serves as a heat source.

The conduits of the system can be joined together by means of two types of coupling pieces, shown respectively in fig. 3 and fig. 4. A quick-coupling is shown in fig. 3, where a coupling piece 3 is arranged to join two conduit profiles. Interior lip packings 4 in each respective end of the coupling piece provide the necessary seal, and the ends of the conduit profiles, which ends are without installation flange parts, and without possible interconnecting portions, are pushed in from each respective side until the coupling piece 3 engages installation flanges/interconnecting portions.

In fig. 4 is shown a splittable, i.e. two-part coupling piece consisting of a bottom part 6 and a top part or a lid 9. The ends of the conduit profile are placed into the bottom part 6, which is equipped with screw fixing holes 5 for fixing the lid 9. .Packings 7, 8 provide for the sealing of the coupling piece when it is screwed together with screws 10.

In both types of coupling piece there is an upper area 16, 17 where it is possible to arrange transition elements or "fittings" for branching off, possibly transition adaptors for other prior art conduit systems and armatures. It will be easily apprehended that the mounting areas 16, 17 can be enlarged by extending the coupling pieces, which thereby will be able to accomodate a larger number of fittings for different purposes in the same coupling piece. It appears also rather clearly that the lid 9 will have several mounting areas next to each other in the case with multipipe conduit profiles. In such cases the lid 9 will be equipped with the necessary separating walls between the different courses.

The construction of the splittable coupling piece 6, 9 forms the starting point for all kinds of coupling pieces necessary for turning the conduit system through angles, as well as for end pieces for mounting together several conduits when building cooling or heating installations, where it is necessary with several conduits in parallel next to each other, e.g. when laying down during concreting of floors, stairs etc.