Enerpac announces portfolio of tools for pipeline flange assembly and maintenance

Enerpac has announced the Equalizer portfolio of tools, for easier pipeline flange assembly and maintenance. The tools provide a safe, cost-effective and simple solution for flange alignment, flange spreading and flange pulling applications. The product range includes flange spreading, aligning and pulling tools together with a series of hand pumps. All tools are supplied as ready to-use sets.
Flange alignment
The flange alignment tools can be used to resolve bolt-hole rotational or lateral misalignment that can occur within flange joints inside wind turbine tower sections during their assembly or installation. For use on applications with minimum bolt-hole diameters of 25 – 45 mm, the tools provide a reaction force of up to 27 t (270 kN). Compared with traditional, manual approaches, the Equalizer tools offer a safer and more effective means of realigning flanges.
For use on horizontal or vertical flanges, the Equalizer range is suitable for ANSI/ASME, API, BS, DIN and SPO flanges. The tools operate on most pipe configurations with minimum bolt-hole diameters of 16 – 35.5 mm with reaction forces up to 90 kN.
Flange spreading and pulling
The Equalizer range of tools also includes flange spreading and pulling tools together with a series of hand pumps. The wedge shaped, flange spreading tools use mechanical and hydraulic actuation for separating flanges and can spread small, medium or large flange joints with a minimum required access gap of 4 mm, with a spreading force of 480 kN when used in pairs.
The Equalizer flange pulling tools have been developed to pull flanges together during installation or maintenance for use on all vertical and horizontal flanges including ANSI/ASME, API, BS, DIN and SPO with a minimum bolt-hole diameter of 22 mm. With a closing force of up to 200 kN when used in pairs, the tools can pull flanges from a distance of 600 mm down to 0.0 mm.
The Equalizer range of hydraulic hand-pumps have been designed with a sealed oil reservoir, which allows the pumps to be used in any orientation without the risk of oil spills or air contamination. The pumps can be used to operate any Equalizer 690 bar rated hydraulic equipment in most environments including onshore, offshore or subsea. Each pump is available in 350cc, 550cc and 1000cc capacity versions.