Test rigs are rebuilt constantly. A pressure-cycling bench, a burst test cell or a materials rig may be reconfigured between every run, and the connection system has to survive being broken and remade dozens of times without degrading. That requirement rules out most fitting types before pressure is even considered.
A compression fitting seals with a ferrule swaged permanently onto the tube. It is a one-time component — remake the joint and you are reusing a ferrule already work-hardened into its final shape.
A cone and thread joint deforms nothing permanently. Provided the cone face, seat and thread are undamaged, it can be broken and remade repeatedly at full rating. On a rig that changes weekly, that is the difference between a connection system and a consumable.
The seal is also pressure-energised: system pressure acts on the back of the cone and drives it harder into its seat, rather than working against a preload set at assembly. That is what makes 100,000 and 150,000 psi achievable.
| Component | Application |
| Cone and thread fittings | Elbow, tee and cross bodies from 10,000 to 150,000 psi |
| High-pressure needle valves | Isolation and fine throttling, straight, angle and 3-way |
| Tooling sets | Coning and threading tube on site to the length you need |
| Tube and nipples | Ordered to length, or produced in-house with the tooling set |
| Safety head and rupture disc | Defined-failure overpressure protection on test cells |
| Relief valves | Factory-set, field-adjustable and proportional types |
| Pressure regulators and back pressure regulators | Setting and holding rig pressure |
| Line filters | Protecting instrumentation from particulate |
| Pressure gauges and thermocouples | Rig instrumentation |
| Tube support | Restraining small-bore runs under cycling load |
Two practical points for anyone specifying a rig for the first time.
Send the maximum working pressure, tube sizes, media and how often the circuit is reconfigured, and we will specify the fittings, nipples and tooling to build it.
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