Camlock Hose Fittings versus Flow Direction

[MFJewell]

I have some new polisher vessels I am putting in my facility. I plan to use two short runs of 4" SS flex hose for the influent and effluent vessel connections to hard piping. The vessel supplier is showing a male camlock on the influent and female camlock on the effluent. I would think it would be ideal to be the other way around (male going into female in direction of flow). I have done some internet sleuthing and came up empty, but is there any guidance on male/female camlocks based on direction of flow?

 

[Latexman]

Look at page 22 on OPW Catalog. It speaks to backward and forward flow. There is usually less pressure drop with forward flow in the small sizes, but in larger sizes (3") it flip-flops. Forward flow is from coupler (female) through adapter (male). You should get the details on the exact size coupler the supplier is going to use to see.

Good luck,
Latexman

To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.

 

[hydtools]

I've always used the convention of flow goes from male to female. Reminded of biological function.

On the other hand, having female on both hoses would prevent or reduce risk of damaging the connection interface. This would suggest also using different sizes to prevent reverse connections.

Ted

 

[Compositepro]

I believe it is recommended that hose ends be female to protect the sealing surfaces from being dinged, or otherwise damaged, in handling. Male ends are fully exposed.

 

[moltenmetal]

If you're using camlocks, it's because you're generally coupling and un-coupling not just between two pieces of fixed equipment, but between a variety of pieces of equipment.

If you will never couple this system to anything else, putting the male parts on the two end points and making a hose with two female ends can work, and does give the benefit of making the hose ends less likely to be damaged in handling.

But the RIGHT way to make hoses is with one male and one female end, with predominant flow being from the male into the female- like biology...

That way, you don't end up with a freakshow of hoses and adapters, and any two hoses can be coupled to one another to make a longer hose.

That's how it's also done with garden hoses, and for that same reason.

Discharge points also tend to be more frequent than suction points, and hence you end up using a lot of the generally less expensive male camlock fitting and comparatively fewer female parts.

 

[LittleInch]

I agree with MM. You need to decide and explain a bit more why you're using camlocks on what sounds and looks like a permanent piece of piping. Why not use 4" flanges instead?

Is this vessel portable and being moved around or what?

BTW having one nozzle directly above the other but both pointing down looks like a poor design to me as both hoses will clash if laid on the floor and access to both will be difficult. I would have thought you wanted them offset by 30 degrees or so.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[MFJewell]

Thanks for the sidebar on use of camlocks, but I am aware of best use practices. Not sure where it sounds and/or looks like permanent pieces of piping. I only showed the vessel (which you can see it mounted on a skid with openings for forklift tines) and asked about direction of flow. The equipment is removed and sent off site for regeneration. In order to ease the removal and install of the vessels for my operators, I want some flexibility in where the vessels can be located. Additionally, operators won't turn wrenches and maintenance would bitch too much if I asked them to unbolt and bolt these connections every time we swapped out a vessel. As stated, the hoses are short (4 foot in length) to connect the run of pipe to the vessel. See screenshot below, yellow pipe is new pipe.

As for the nozzles on top of each other, the water conditioning company owns the vessels, so that is their design. I can offset my piping to avoid hose clash.

 

[LittleInch]

OK.

Either which way, from what I've been able to see there is a smooth bore when the two are connected together so I can't see any difference in flow whether the flow is from male side to female side or vice versa.

If you've got a particular section view of your particular coupling then please post it, but I guess they want two different ones so that you don't swap them over accidentally.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.