Clamp connectors - Compatibility 2

[dinoo3]

Hi there,

What is yours opinion about compatibility of clamp connectors which are made by different manufacturers? Especially Grayloc vs, Destec. Is possible insert Destec seal ring into Grayloc's hubs an clamps without problems? Are the same products, with same dimensions? What are the differences? According which standard are made clamp connectors? If are made according one standard, then the dimensions must be same, I think. Which product is better Grayloc vs. Destec?

Thanks

 

[georgeverghese]

An American supermajor I worked for many years ago listed Grayloc and Securamax as their preferred high pressure clamp connectors - the majority in use were Graylocs. I cannot tell if they are compatible though.

 

[LittleInch]

There is AFAIK, no "standard" for these items and hence each one will be unique to each vendor and not compatible.

Hence once you choose a particular brand and make you're stuck with it for that project or location.

You will need to define "better" much more before you can make any decision -

Reliability? (often very hard to get reliable numbers from anyone other than an operator)
Installation?
Cost?
Availability?
Your requirement for pressure and temp matching the connector? ( no point in paying for extra capacity you don't need)


Otherwise this is like asking someone whether your car is better than his car... You'll only get vague opinions, not hard facts.

Do a proper study, figure out what is important to you and talk to the vendor reps and other industry personnel familiair with your situation.

What works well in one location / type of connector, might not work in another location


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

 

[ricklts]

Guys,
I'll have to take issue here. I have worked for and currently work for, one of the six or sever suppliers of this type of equipment. We all, in one way or another, make efforts to ensure compatability to some extent. There is a DNV study performed several years ago for a North Sea client which actually measured individual components (clamps, hubs, seal rings) and then compared machine drawings, to determine interchangeability. As far as I know, Grayloc are the only ones who have refused to admit that someone else's seals will fit into Grayloc hubs. But they do.

I can't be too strident, as I am still employed in this product class, but if you look up the following companies, you will find statements of interchangeability:
Freudenberg Oil and Gas (Vector Clamp Connectors)
Galperti Engineering and Flow Control (G-LOK)
LTS Energy (Wireloc)

There are others as well.

 

[BigInch]

Not that we don't believe you, it's that we can't believe you. Clients ask us to show them the standard. How can we do that when you don't have one. It's difficult to sell standard components to everybody on one hand when on the other it's marketed as a unique product.

Reaction to change doesn't stop it

 

[LittleInch]

This also goes, regrettably, into issues of responsibility, liability and legal accountability.

If you use a different suppliers connector to fit anothers and anything goes wrong - regardless of exactly what it was, then neither party will accept any liability unless they have specifically agreed to it like ricklts says they have. Any engineering company which designed and ordered such a system without a bullet proof signed in blood direction from their client or supplier pretty soon wouldn't exist anymore.

Those are the facts of life. The cost of something going wrong so vastly exceed the savings you might make by not buying the same connector pieces that there is no one willing to do this, at least once it goes far enough up the tree.

ricklts "compatability to some extent" - is not going to cut the mustard. They either are 100%compatible and interchangeable or they're not. That sentence unfortunately smacks of being a little bit pregnant....

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