Turning Away from Twist-On Connectors

Customer

A leading global supplier of medical, industrial and specialty compressed gas. 

Application

A high-volume fill plant currently filling cylinders with twist-on style connectors on CGA 580 (non-oxygen, non-flammable gas) manifolds.

Challenge

The twist-on connectors presented an ergonomic worker safety hazard, potentially resulting in worker injury, lost time incidents, and worker’s compensation claims. Also, the cycle time of twist-on connections reduced productivity

Project Goals

• Minimize cycle time and eliminate the ergonomic safety hazard of the twist-on connections to fill more cylinders with an increased level of safety.  • Reduce the need to use RPV adapters when filling with RPV style cylinder valves.

Solution

FasTest G580 quick connectors, designed specifically for use on CGA 580 fill lines.

Results

The G580 connectors from FasTest significantly reduced cylinder connection/disconnection cycle time and eliminated the ergonomic safety hazard for the CGA 580 fill lines. The resulting production efficiency increase allowed time for filling one additional rack per day, eliminating the cylinder filling process as a bottleneck in the fill plant.  Additionally, operators are quite happy with the G580 connectors’ speed and ease of use, and of course the reduced wear and tear on their wrists! The retractable RPV pin is also a key to additional flexibility - the pin can be extended for use with RPV valves and retracted for standard non-RPV valves – without the need for a separate adapter fitting.