Copper Pipe Joining Methods

As a leading factory in developing, manufacturing, and selling solderless connection products in China.

Miracle has an independent technical team, which has been engaged in the installation and repair works of solderless connections for more than 20 years.

So we have more experience to help you understand the pros and cons between soldering and no-soldering.

Welding Method

Before you can understand welding you need to understand, what is welding and the types of welding.

Soldering can be divided into five categories, namely GMAW, GTAW, SMAW, FCAW, and FOW.

The welding of copper pipes belongs to the FOW type, also called fire welding, which is generally used with silver welding rods.

The use of fire welded copper pipe has lower raw material costs, but higher labor costs.

The quality of fire welding depends on the skill level of the welder.

At the same time, welding requires sufficient operating space, which is very tight during project installation, and this can also affect the quality of welding.

In addition, welding generates high heat, which can damage copper pipes, and fire welding is not allowed in some projects because it is unsafe.

To sum up, when using welding to connect copper pipes, attention needs to be paid to the training of the welding personnel and the need to strictly follow the welding process.

You can know more: How to weld copper pipe, copper fitting, brass fitting.

Press Method

In our traditional refrigeration field, if you ask how to join copper pipe, people will tell you welding.

Here I want to show you a new technology after you know how we do, it will impress you.

It’s simple, you just need a lokring tool, lokring fitting, and the sealing liquid.

The lokring fitting is consists of an inner nest, connecting ring, and connecting sleeve.

We use sealing liquid other than the sealing gasket because it’s very easy for age, but our special sealing liquid doesn’t have this concern.

It also will fill the small scratches on the pipes that we even can’t see with our eyes, to make sure the reliable sealing.

Solderless vs Solder

As you can see from the following pics, use Miracle lokring tool and lokring fitting, you don’t need fire, no high temperature, no dangerous gas.

So no fire or explosion risk for our customers and our own installation team. Just a toolbox, you can easily carry the tools you need.

For welding, you will need the Oxygen cylinder, acetylene cylinder, and welding torch, you may also need a license to carry these bottles.

You have to connect them and use fire, high temperature to weld the pipes to connect, any unprofessional operation will cause bad consequences.

High Efficiency.

It will save more than 80% more time than welding for a project.

For example, for one connection, welding needs 5 minutes (From opening the tools to connecting one pipe), we need less than 1 minute.

We all know that labor cost is a big cost during installation and repair work, no welding technology will greatly short the project time and save cost for you.

Simple to Operate.

Welding will require a skillful worker because the worker will directly affect the project function, if there is any incorrect operation, it will be a big risk for leaking.

But for no welding connection, it’s easy to operate with few exercises, even for a freshman.

It will save a lot of your cost for after-sale service a lot.

In some countries, customers also like to do DIY for their AC installation system, they buy the products and install them by themselves.

Clear System.

We all know there will be some slot caused by welding, it is a risk for the whole system, by no welding technology, there won’t have this concern.

What is the Best Way to Join Copper Pipes?

The development of each connection method, whether welding or crimping, is an advancement in technology.

Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, so we should look at these two connection methods correctly.

First of all, Miracle ring has great technical advantages compared to welding.

The burst pressure of Miracle ring is 30MPA or more, and the working pressure is 5-7MPA.

The testing temperature of Miracle ring is -50℃-+150℃.

Miracle ring is safer, more efficient, and faster in installation and maintenance, also has less requirement for your experience because it’s very easy to operate.

However, the price advantage of Miracle ring will be reduced when connecting large diameter pipelines until now.

The main reason is the qty demand for large diameter pipeline is less, which is not good to reduce the production cost with bulk qty for our factory.

Therefore, we believe that no-weld products are more cost-effective in the connection of refrigeration and air conditioning piping.

When the pipe diameter is more than 1 5/8″ (41.3mm), we recommend you to use welding, because the cost of welding is lower.

Regardless of the connection method, you can be sure of reliable connection quality if you connect the pipes after professional testing and follow the correct instructions given by the company.

How to Connect Copper Pipe Without Soldering?

Here make a brief introduction for how to connect the copper pipe without soldering, only use the tool, fitting, and sealing liquid :

Check and confirm your pipe size and choose the matched propress fittings.

Trim the pipes with a reamer to make the end of the pipe is smooth and flat.

Put the suitable propress fitting on the copper pipe.

Put the propress fitting right, then draw a mark on it with the pen.

Pull the propress fitting out a little, drop the sealing liquid on the pipes and let it suck in.

Put the propress fittings in the right place after the sealing liquid is sucked in.

Crimp it with our propress tool until you can see the mark line.

That’s all the procedures.

For the tools, we have an FRK refrigeration repair tool for small sizes (pipe size≤8mm) and a 30W series propress tool for bigger sizes(5/16” to 1 1/8”).

30W series propress tool is mainly used for the Central Air conditioning installation system, water pipe systems just showed on the above pics.

FRK refrigeration repair tool is a patented product, it is designed and improved by our engineers for years using our own projects.

It’s especially used for refrigerators and freezer maintenance.

Because it has small size and lightweight, which makes it very flexible during the small and narrow space for refrigerator and freezer.

How to Connect Lokring Single Ring on Production Line?

You are great to learn about the No welding connection products for AC installation and refrigerator&freezer repair above, hope you’ve already got the point for how to connect the copper pipe without soldering.

In this part, I want to introduce the no welding connection products-Lokring single ring to the refrigerator production line.

It will be a revolution for improving your production efficiency for refrigerator production.

You gonna need the suitable sizes lokring fittings, sealing liquid and the operation equipment, check the video to see how we use it on the production line with high efficiency.

As we all know, the copper tube of the refrigerator is very small in diameter.

If the connection is made by fire welding, a very high level of welding is required from the workers.

This is because only professional workers can ensure the efficiency of welding and no leakage.

However, the labor cost of advanced welding workers is very expensive.

These problems can be solved effectively if a no-weld connection is used.

The reliability of a solderless connection is determined at the design stage.

Miracle ring is the perfect solution to this problem.

Please note: If you choose to use Miracle no welding connection, we will need to customize an exclusive no-weld ring based on a sample of your pipe.

Related Products:

For better connection without soldering, please use good quality solderless tools.

Miracle provides the pipe cutter, pipe bender, deburring tool, copper branches, refrigeration service valve, refrigeration manifold, copper filter drier, etc for you (after our selection by many years’ project experience).

Make sure the welding connection for the whole system is safe and reliable.

If you want to know more, contact us immediately.