Pipe Flange Glossary

on 23 June 2024. Posted in Pipe Flange

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Blind Flange - A piping component for covering or closing the end of a pipe, valve, vessel or tank.
Blowout - Occures when internal pressure tends to push the gasket material out from between flanges.
Bolt Fracture - A type of fastener failure that occures when a fastener is over-tightened and causes the bolt to break.
Bolt Hole Distortion - The flange is permanently distorted directly beneath the bolt. Caused by initial bolt torque.
Bolt Load - The load generated by a bolt when it is tightened.
Bolt Tightening Procedure - When tightening, always use the correct sequential bolt order for the flange.
Bolt Torque - A rotational moment. It is a measure of how much twisting is applied to tighten (turn) the nut on a bolt.
Breakaway Torque - The torque necessary to put into reverse rotation a bolt that has not been tightened.

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Cocking - When the flange of a mechanical assembly is not parallel to each other.
Corrosion - The thinning of a pipe wall that is typically caused by a chemical reaction from a corroding fluid or agent and is limited almost exclusively to metal products.

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Facing - The contact surface finish of a flange.
Fitting - A piping component that is used to join piping, change the direction or diameter of piping or end the pipe.
Flange Bolt Circle - A flange is the theoretical circle on which the centerpoints of bolt holes lie when the bolt holes are positioned as equally spaced on the flange face.
Flange Bolting Examples -
Flange Dimension Tolerances, ASME B16.5 (in) -
Flange Facings, ASME B16.5 - ASME B16.5 requires that for flanges and flanged fittings the surface is to have a specific roughness.
Flange Pressure and Temperature Ratings, B16.5 - The following table is the maximum allowable non-shock pressure and temperature ratings for various flanges.
Flange Specification, BSI -
Flange Stamping - All flanges should be stamped for identification on the outside diameter of the base for easy identification.
Flange Welding Bevel Standard, ANSI B16.5 and B16.47 - This article outlines the requirements for the beveling of flanges to be in compliance with ANSI/ ASME B16.56 and B16.47.
Flat Faced Flange - A flange that is machined flat and does not have a ridge like a raised face or ring type joint flange.

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Gasket - A seal between two components, usually bolted.
General Flange Standards -

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Lap Joint Flange - A flange that consists of two parts, a stub end and the backing flange.
Leakage - The amount of fluid that will pass through a control valve when it is fully closed at a given pressure and temperature.

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Orifice Flange - For metering the volumetric flow rate of liquids and gasses through a pipe.
Orifice Plate - Measures the flow of a liquid or gas by the difference in pressure from the upstream to the downstream.
Orifice Plate Beta Ratio - The relative size of the orifice opening compared to the pipe diameter in which it is installed.

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Pipe - A hollow tube that can carry products such as fluid, gas, granular and more.
Pipe End - There are three main types of pipe ends: beveled, threaded or plain.
Pipe Schedule - The term used to describe the thickness of a pipe.
Pipe Tap - Uses a cutting tool to create internal threads in a hole or pipe. It is specifically designed to create threads that conform to standard pipe thread sizes and specifications.
Pressure - It is the force exerted perpendicular to the surface of an object and is expressed as force per unit area.

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Raised Face Flange - The most common type of flange facing is the raised face flange. It is used in almost all applications in high and low pressures and temperatures.
Raised Face Smooth Finish - More than several years ago, the standard finish on raised face flanges was around 500 microinch roughness.
Reducing Flange - Designed for when there is a change in the pipe size.
Ring Type Joint fFange - A type of flange that uses a metal ring that sits in a hexagonal groove as a gasket to seal the flange pair.

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Sealing Stress - The amount of flange pressure in a flanged joint assembly to compress and seat a gasket material in order to create an effective seal.
Slip-on Flange - Designed to slip over the outside of pipe, long-tangent elbows, reducers, and swages.
Socket Weld Flange - The socket weld flange, abbreviated as SWF, is similar to a slip-on flange, except only one fillet weld is made to the flange and pipe.
Spec Blind - See Spectacle Blind
Spectacle Blind - A safety device used to isolate a section of line or piece of equipment when the line or equipment needs to be inspected or removed from service.
Standard Connection Flange - This flange is normally used for nozzles on pressure vessels and rarely used with pipe.

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Torque - The rotational force used to move a shart.

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Weld Neck Flange - A flange type that is usually used with pipes, as opposed to pressure vessels.
Welding to a Flange - When welding a flange, fitting or a piece of pipe together the gap spacing for welding them is established by the Welding Qualification.