Secured in place gasket for sealing plastic pipelines, method of manufacture and method of installation

1. A method of installing a gasket with an embedded reinforcing hard plastic band within a gasket receiving raceway provided within the belled end of a female pipe member in a Rieber style pipe belling operation, the belled end having a mouth opening which is engageable with a spigot end of a mating male plastic pipe section to form a pipe joint, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a mandrel with an inner end and an outer end and having an outer working surface;

installing the gasket at a first circumferential position on the outer working surface;

providing a backup collar at a second circumferential location on the outer working surface of the mandrel, the backup collar having an exposed circumferential lip portion which abuts the gasket when the gasket is installed on the outer working surface of the mandrel;

heating a socket end of the thermoplastic pipe;

forcing the heated socket end of the thermoplastic pipe over the working surface of the mandrel and over the gasket and backup collar, whereby the heated socket end of the thermoplastic pipe flows over the gasket to form a retention groove for retaining the gasket;

retracting the backup collar;

cooling the heated socket end of the thermoplastic pipe;

retracting the cooled socket end of the thermoplastic pipe and the retained gasket from the working surface of the mandrel;

wherein the gasket is formed as a ring shaped elastomeric body having a main body portion formed of rubber which, when viewed in cross section, includes a leading nose region, a lower primary sealing surface and a trailing tail region, the leading nose region facing generally towards the female socket end of the pipe once the gasket is inserted within the pipe;

wherein the trailing tail region of the main body portion of the gasket is reinforced by the hard plastic hand formed as a series of integral, spaced wedges interconnected by a flexible ribbon, the wedges each having a front edge, a rear edge and opposing side edges, the and plastic band being embedded within the trailing tail region of the main body portion of the gasket during gasket manufacture by molding the same therein, whereby only a portion of the front edges of the hard plastic band are exposed from the main body portion of the gasket;

wherein the location of the hard plastic band in the trailing tail region of the main body portion of the gasket acts to hold the gasket body onto the working surface of the mandrel as the heated socket end of the pipe is forced over the gasket and the backup collar;

wherein hydraulic pressure due to fluid in the pipe acts upon the band on the hard plastic band to push the wedges into tighter engagement with the mating male and female pipe members to prevent extrusion of the gasket from the raceway provided in the female socket end of the thermoplastic pipe once a spigot end of a mating male pipe is installed to form a pipe joint and the pipe is conveying fluid; and

wherein the material selected for the hard plastic band is an engineered plastic material which has a melting temperature high enough to withstand a gasket molding process, has sufficient stiffness to tolerate the described pipe belling process, while also being sufficiently flexible to accept inverse curvature when flexed by hand and allow the gasket to be subsequently removed by hand from the retention groove of the belled pipe end after the manufacturing process is complete.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:

applying a vacuum to the heated, socket end of the thermoplastic pipe after the pipe has been forced over the working surface of the gasket and mandrel to thereby three the heated, socket end to contract about the mandrel and gasket.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the heated thermoplastic pipe is cooled by a water spray after the mandrel is retracted.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the thermoplastic pipe is heated in the temperature range from about 82 to 92° C. prior to contacting the gasket.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the material selected for the hard plastic band is a modified polyphenylene ether.