30-second installation for new 150 bar CO₂ pipe

Rapid Locking System (RLS) has developed the ‘Stainless Press-To-Connect System’ pipe (150 bar) for use with CO₂ and can be installed in 30 seconds. 

“It is the world’s first press-to-connect stainless system engineered for high-pressure systems,” General Manager Michael Duggan said at ATMOsphere Europe 2017 in Berlin, Germany a few weeks ago.                                       

The system does not need welding, according to Duggan, therefore you have “savings in labour costs”.

The piping has been in development for three years and has already been granted a patent, with some still pending. RLS states that the system will also have lower leak rates than the welded alternatives currently on the market.  

“The RLS stainless fittings will have a significant total installed cost advantage over copper iron and welded stainless,” he said. 

The company is now in the testing phase of the product. So far it has passed an explosive decompression testing, where it sustained heat over 150°C and 150 bar pressures.

It will now go through carbonic acid testing. The first real world test will then take place after and “fittings will be available for OEMs to test in November 2017,” he said.

Then it will go through product certification processes from U.S. safety body U.L. and German safety body TUV in early 2018. “Product launch will be mid-to-late 2018,” he said.