Design of bellows element is easy compared to the design of the ancillaries. For element design with some exception calculation formulae are given in the standards and by following them the design can be done. Without a program it is slow and very error prone.

Design standards and good engineering require that all elements of the expansion joint have to be designed. However minimal information is given how to do this excluding the upgraded EN 14917 .  Annex K has several design cases but not all that are required. In addition, the standard has issues, which have to be solved. Our Series II ancillaries design programs include the original design cases plus those included into EN 14917. Where required EN 14917 calculations have been updated and warnings given for some of the issues identified.

Ancillaries can be designed using FEA but it requires special skills and expensive software. Our software solves this design problem. We have a program for each of the main ancillary design. All of the programs are easy to use and the original design methods have at least 30 year proven record to give safe and sound design. 

In all of the five programs calculations can be done using SI and Imperial units and using EN or ASME materials and their applicable allowable stresses. Users can also create their own material database to any standard they may require.

All programs are for Windows operating system. They use common material databases (ASME and EN) and therefore there is no need to enter any material values.

Design report can be printed or directly saved as PDF file.

Original design programs are still available for those wishing to use them.

Support Page - User Manual Ancillaries Design - Original Series

FlangeTool II is a program to calculate oval and round flanges used for universal, hinge, and gimbal expansion joints. Flanges can be blind or with a centre hole and both types may or may not have flange bolts.  Results of the original series may be slightly conservative compared to finite element methods but are faster and cheaper to produce. 

EN 14917 calculations include also similar flange designs as the original series. In addition there are lock and welded hinge plate calculations, which can be used also with the original series flanges. For warnings and limitations on EN 14917 flange designs see the user manual.

Intended users are estimators, sales and designers. It includes calculation of the bellows' pressure force and allows you to include external additional loading of the rods attached to the flanges.

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Pin design is not as easy as many designers assume. Engineering literature gives various solutions to do the design but there is no uniform agreement how the pins should be designed for expansion joint. EN 14917 is changing this. There are clear rules including mandatory consideration of the pin bending. Using our software pins will not fail and they pass all design reviews.

PinMaster II has options to design pins for hinge plate design and for three different gimbal ring types.

It includes calculation of the bellows' pressure force and allows you to include external additional loading of the pins.

Designer selects proposed pin diameter and the program verifies if all of the stresses are within design standard allowable.

RodMaster II is a program for expansion joint rod calculation.  It includes calculation of the bellows' pressure force and allows the inclusion of external additional loading of the rods.

Tension and compression loadings are included.

There are two major additions compared to the original program. These are consideration of friction under the spherical nut and option to use pipes as part of the rod design. Pipes are often used where there is a compression force an the rods are long.

American design standards do not consider influence of the friction but EN does. Software developers do know unexplained rod failures where high friction force could have been the reason for the failure.

GimbalMaster II is a program to calculate three basic types of gimbal rings used in expansion joints. There are solid round ring, hollow round ring and three types of rectangular gimbals with multiple corner connection types. It includes calculation of the bellows' pressure force and allows you to include external additional loading of ring.

Big improvement compared to the original design program is inclusion of the gimbal stability design. At the same time program has hollow round and double rectangular ring types, which are not in EN 14917. These two types solve the instability issue in a safe manner.

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BracketMaster II is a program to calculate various types of restraining brackets for expansion joints. It includes calculation of the bellows' pressure force and allows you to include external additional loading of the brackets.

Program has two bracket types, simple lug, floating ring and EN 14917 type double ring design with enhanced design calculations.

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Expansion joint movements are not always given. It is relatively easy to calculate the movements using heat expansion coefficients from the literature but it can be slow. We have two programs to do these calculations.

AxMove Tool is calculate axial movement in a straight pipe line. There is nothing stopping to use it to calculate any kind of heat expansion of common metals. 

HinMove Tool is a program to quickly calculate bellows' required angular movements in a 3 hinge system due to thermal expansion. 

The main purpose of VesselTool is to calculate external pressure case to ASME VIII Div 1 UG 28. This calculation is time consuming and error prone because of two factors, which have to be read from graphs or interpolated from tables. Calculation has also many fine details.

Externally pressurized expansion joints are typically used in heat exchangers and large diameter ducts or pipes around for instance condensers. External pressure calculation is critical to prevent failures.

In addition, program includes wall thickness calculations to ASME VIII Div 1, ASME B31.3 and ASME B31.1, Test pressure calculation to ASME B31.1 and ASME B31.3 and flat face flange calculation with gasket.