US Patent Issued to Airgas on May 26 for "Apparatus for pipe purging" (Georgia, Texas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,636,726, issued on May 26, was assigned to Airgas Inc. (Radnor, Pa.).

"Apparatus for pipe purging" was invented by Scott Laymon (Kingston, Ga.) and Frederick A. Schweighardt (Cypress, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An apparatus for providing an inert atmosphere to the inside of a piping assembly prior to and during welding, including a cannister, and a bladder which surrounds the cannister and fits inside of a piping assembly to be welded. The cannister including a purge gas inlet connection fluidically connected to a bladder fill conduit, a bladder return conduit fluidically connected to a pressure relief device, the pressure relie...