Flange connector assembly for grooved pipe

Claim 1

A flange connector assembly for coupling a grooved pipe to a matching flanged member comprising: a plurality of arcuate flange segments for positioning on the pipe and assembling to make a complete, rigid, circular connector; said complete connector having a front face adapted to abut flush against the matching flanged member, a rear face, a radially inboard lip to engage the pipe groove, a central, circumferential recess therein opening out of the front face and adjacent the pipe to receive a gasket, and bolt apertures through the body thereof; each of said segments having opposite and unlike end ear portions of lesser thickness than the rest of the segment extending from the ends thereof, the opposite ear portions of a given segment oriented in line with the front and rear faces of the segment, respectively, whereby to be displaced from one another; each said segment ear portion operative to overlap an unlike ear portion of another segment in assembly of the connector; each segement ear portion having an oversized bolt hole therethrough; and unlike wedge means mounted on each of said segment ear portions and facing in opposite directions on said segment adapted to cooperate with the unlike wedge means and oversized bolt apertures of adjacent segments in assembly of the circular connector, whereby tightening of bolts engaging overlapping ear portions of adjacent segments causes the wedge means thereof to force the segments into rigid engagement, one with the other, against the matching flange member.