Lateral Expansion Joints

Lateral stainless steel expansion joints are mainly designed with tie-rod supports system, allowing radial movements. Therefor, installation must be executed vertically to the direction of movement of the conduit. Normally, axial expansion of the pipeline can not be absorbed by lateral stainless steel expansion joints. The most favorable types are those absorbing expansion in a circular plane.

The standard lateral stainless steel expansion joint construction allows movements in one plane only. Bellows’ flexibility as well as the distance between the middle of the bellows (the length of the intermediate pipe) are crucial for the value of the permissible lateral (radial) movement: the longer the intermediate pipe, the larger the lateral movement which can be compensated.

A particular case of lateral compensators are universal stainless steel expansion joints. These items are a special type construction, available both with weld-ends and flanges, that allows multi-plane movement compensation including axial movement. Universal stainless steel expansion joints have similar construction as lateral expansion joints with the exception of the tie-rods system. By eliminating the rods system the structure can compensate in more than one direction, however the pressure thrust restraint is limited.