Key Features
- Stainless steel construction
- Precision machined surfaces
- Secure glass support
- Various sizes available
High-quality backing flanges for secure glass connections and support.
Backing flanges form one of the core mechanical supports in glassware coupling systems. They are used to join a glass end either to another glass component or to a PTFE bellow, providing structural rigidity and alignment. These flanges are typically manufactured from cast iron and are intended to be used together with compatible inserts to complete a reliable seal. Backing flanges are essential when assembling modular glass pipelines or process units where the glass elements must be held with mechanical stability without imposing undue stress. Their role is often hidden but critical in ensuring that glass-to-glass or glass-to-bellow joints maintain alignment during operation, thermal expansion, or mechanical vibration.
Key technical parameters and options for backing flanges include:
– **Material**: Typically cast iron for strength and rigidity
– **Compatibility**: Designed to mate with split-ring inserts and matching flange geometries
– **Flange Pattern**: May be drilled per standard bolt patterns (e.g. Table E, Table F, ASA 150) if specified by customer
– **Mechanical Strength**: Must withstand axial and bending loads transferred through the coupling
– **Dimensional Options**: Flanges offered across multiple DN (nominal diameter) sizes, with matching bolt circle diameters (PCD), number of bolt holes, and thicknesses
– **Insert Use**: Always paired with an insert (typically a split-ring type) that provides the sealing interface within the flange assembly
– **Customization**: Ability to supply undrilled or pre-drilled pattern flanges to match customer mating components
Backing flanges are applied in many glassware systems where mechanical support and sealing integrity are required, such as:
– Laboratory and pilot plant glass piping networks
– Glass reactors or vessels, when glass segments have to be coupled
– Installations using PTFE bellows between glass sections
– Supporting modular reconfigurations in chemical, pharmaceutical, or academic setups
– Repair or retrofitting of glass installations where existing flanges must be matched
Because backing flanges are passive structural elements, they are used wherever robust joining of glass modules is required, especially under vacuum or mild pressure environments.
