Connect It

Via the Ralston Way.

We at CPS hooked up with Ralston a few years back, mainly peddling their range of hand held pressure calibration pumps and the portable pressure source, the Nitropak. But what they also did was a fantastic range of calibration fittings. These are connection fittings that connect your device under test to your pressure source/reference. It’s like the wiring in your car, these fittings are what connects and allows everything to work together in harmony.

These fittings are what brought all our calibration equipment together into one complete calibration package. Our very own CPS test kits, check them out here, Gary is the one that has been very successful in getting this product off the line.

 I actually didn’t do a lot with the fittings for a while – I slowly changed my habits and we started to use them with our
CPS Comparator in our pressure lab, but when we did the big lab expansion and got into calibration by automation they really started to make sense. We wanted to test more than one instrument at a time. Then it really clicked, these fittings save time and they don’t leak! You don’t need any tools to make a leak free connection (so perfect in a Cal lab when you can’t find any tools) and the best thing of all, “they don’t leak!” Which as you know leaks just drives us nuts. We now must have a few hundred in our lab now, of all different sizes and thread types! Since those early days, Ralston have increased the ranges of test fittings, which is now very extensive, with fittings for nearly all requirements – check the range out here.

These are not a replacement or competition to the Swagelok type fittings – they are to be used when you want to calibrate or test your instrument. So continue to use those type fittings for instals, but you can install a Ralston fitting in the system along with say a pressure transmitter, which allows you easy access to the system come calibration time. They even do a very cool cap and chain to seal it off between calibrations. They differ from the swage type fittings as they are hand tight so handle 100’s of operations without failure. They use a o-ring – pin type arrangement to seal , no spanners, no tools, to get a leak free seal right up to and over 400 bar. Best thing of all. “they don’t leak”.

One of the most popular fittings and one I use a lot here at CPS is this one, it connects directly to the male cone of a Swagelok type fitting – remove the nut and tubing and install this fitting over the cone – These are available in ¼ , 3/8 , ½ as well as for 6mm and 10mm tube.

Have a look at this Ralston video here


Another one is the female NPT quick-test fittings. These connect onto NPT and BSP threads with a o-ring seal, so no thread tape – 3 seconds to connect and start testing. The perfect fitting for the testing and calibration of pressure gauges – connect up the gauge and start testing in seconds.

Here is a video of the male version of the same fitting – Click here
After seeing those two above videos you will want these fittings. The range is extensive and we stock thousands of fittings at CPS and can also make up those special test kits along with hoses and pumps and of course our world famous XP2i digital gauge.

Also it doesn’t matter if you have a Fluke, Beamex or Druck or heaven forbid a Wika pressure calibrator – we have connection fittings for all those. With Druck we just install a 1/8 male fitting into the calibrator and away you go. For Beamex it’s a female 1/8 BSP onto the sensor port, both seal without thread tape using a bonded seal. For Fluke pressure modules we use this fitting as they have a ¼ NPT male thread. Once these fittings are installed permanently onto your pressure reference it’s only seconds to connect this up to the device under test using a Ralston hose, all without tools.

Bob our Laboratory Technician loves these fittings as it makes his job a lot less stressful no wasting time trying to find that fitting and then fitting it and finding it leaks ! So we have ended up with 100’s of these fittings in our Auckland cal lab as ½ the time I have probably stolen some for some special project I’m working on.