Flanges are structural features used to strengthen, guide, or join elements. They can be internal or external ribs/circles and are used in industries such as piping systems. Examples include reinforcing flanges on I-beams, guide flanges on train wheels, and joint flanges on pipes and cylinders. Some flanges use adhesive and bolt-on methods for joints.
The term flange describes several structural features used to strengthen, guide or join a wide variety of elements. Examples of reinforcing flanges include the ledges on steel I-beams while one of the best examples of a guide flange is the flat, upright edge of a train wheel. Joint flanges are represented by a large selection of mechanisms for connecting pipes and cylinders.
Flanges are structural elements that are widely used in a large number of industries. Basically internal or external ribs or circles, they can be used as a stiffener, guide or indexing member or as a method of joining system parts such as pipes, tanks, valves and blanking plates. Flanges cast as part of structural steel members, such as I-beams and T-beams, are integral members that impart linear strength and stiffness to the beams. When viewed in cross section, the top and bottom horizontal parts of the beam are the flange elements that strengthen the beam against bending forces.
Guide flanges are also usually cast as integral parts, the best examples of which are the rims of cranes and train wheels. These wheels are manufactured as a horizontally oriented cylindrical bearing member with a flat, vertical flange on one end. The vertical element acts as a guide, preventing excessive lateral movements which could cause the horizontal bearing surface of the wheel to come off the rails. Guide flanges are also incorporated at both ends of the rollers to guide crane and winch cables or tow ropes.
Definitely one of the largest group of flanges is used to join system elements or to add ancillary equipment to piping systems. These joints are typically seen on tanks, pipes and pressure vessel cylinders and usually consist of flat circular plates on both elements bolted together to form a non-permanent, fluid- or gas-tight joint. Flanges mounted to common parts of the system will generally all be the same size and have identical mounting hole patterns. Ancillary equipment such as valves, blanking plates, gauges and proportioners have the same flanges, allowing them to be quickly connected and removed from the system.
Some joint flanges use a combination of adhesive and bolt-on methods to make the joints. Plumbing fittings such as toilet closet flanges are a good example of these types of flanges. These flange variants can be made solely of plastics such as ABS and PVC or feature a combination of plastic and steel parts. In these cases, the plastic part of the flange is fixed to a pipe of similar material with a suitable adhesive, and the steel plates serve to mechanically bolt the parts together.
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