US Patent 9791077 Pipe coupling having double-threaded tightening fastener and associated methods

A pipe coupling for coupling adjacent pipe ends of a pair of pipes includes a sleeve, a sealing gasket operatively coupled with the sleeve adjacent an open end of the sleeve, and a clamping element for compressing the sleeve or the sealing gasket into tightened engagement with one of the pipe ends. The clamping element includes two bolt flanges nominally spaced apart by a gap and a double threaded fastening bolt with two external threaded portions, which engage with two corresponding fastening nuts having right-hand thread and left-hand thread, respectively. Accordingly, when the fastening bolt is rotated, both of the fastening nuts move towards or away from one another, thereby rapidly moving the bolt flanges to shrink the gap and compress the clamping element or to expand the gap. As such, less time and labor are required to operate the pipe coupling in the field.