The invention describes an assembly which gives a reliable joint between tubes in a vacuum system. A view looking along the tube axis is given in Figure 1. Figure 2 shows alongitudinal section and Figure 3 shows the tube termination in more detail.
The device works as follows. Split bushes 12 are fixed onto the pipes 14 and 15 so that the protruding rings 13 are located into the mating grooves. Conically shaped rings 11 are put onto the conical surface of the bushes 12. A thin sealing gasket 17 (of PTFE or metal) is placed onto the protrusion of tube 15. The pipes are now brought together so that the centering protrusion on pipe 15 locates into the recess in 14. Conical rings 11 are gripped by half-rings 1 and 2, the faces of which mate with the conical rings. The conical cups 6 are positioned onto conical protrusions 3 and 4 in one of which is a fixed tension rod 5 and clamping handle 7. On clamping, the last conical cup moves along the conical surface of protrusions 3 and 4 which, in turn, compress the half-rings 1 and 2. These slide along the surface of the split bushes 12. The tubes 14 and 15 thus move in an axial direction compressing the elastic gasket to make a reliable vacuum seal.