Why is the dry seal pipe screw thread designed with a parallel external screw thread and an tapered internal screw thread?

Let us start the explanation using the National Pipe Taper (NPT) screw thread. The National Pipe Taper (NPT) screw thread has loose control of the major and minor diameters. As a result when assembled there is most always two helical leak paths, one along the major diameter and one along the minor diameter. Pipe sealant fixes this problem except in situations where the chemical in the pipe eats the sealant.

In this case a mechanical seal is needed and the National Pipe Taper Fuel (NPTF) dry seal screw thread was designed. The National Pipe Taper Fuel (NPTF) dry seal screw thread is designed to have a mismatch at the major and minor diameters which deforms under wrench tight condition and thus forms a mechanical seal. As you can figure it takes a good force to deform the entire major and minor diameters along the whole thread.

To gain a better seal the male National Pipe Straight Fuel (NPSF) dry seal screw thread is mated with the female The National Pipe Taper Fuel (NPTF) dry seal screw thread. This combination gets a better seal because of the reduced assembly force required and the concentration of the compressive force at one point which better deforms the threads into each other.

With the British Standard Pipe Taper (BSPT) pipe screw thread, during the design process I am sure that Mr. Whitworth sought to eliminate the helical leak path by adding the radii. Theoretically this would work when assembling the external Rc tapered British Standard Pipe Taper (BSPT) pipe screw thread with the internal R tapered British Standard Pipe Taper (BSPT) screw thread, but all screw threads are so full of manufacturing errors that the perfect screw thread just does not result. Leaks then occur which requires the use of pipe sealant; however; the situation of the chemical being transmitted in the pipe eating the sealant still exists.

Now we are back to the use of the male external Rp parallel British Standard Pipe "Taper" (BSPT) screw thread with the female internal R tapered British Standard Pipe Taper (BSPT) screw thread to concentrate the pressure at one point and create a mashed together thread and a dry seal.

Comments about the above statement can be sent to: gageguy@gagecrib.com