TPi September 2016

Mother of all jack stands Sumner Manufacturing Co, Inc, USA

Sumner’s Heavy Duty jack was the first commercially built pipe jack that offered weight rating, independent load tested, interchangeable parts, safe operation and three legs for stability. It is from this pipe jack that an industry standard has been established, and today most commercially built stands duplicate this design. As the Heavy Duty jack gained popularity, a new need grew among the independent welders who worked on rigs. They required a stand that had a 900kg capacity, and the same features as the Heavy Duty stand, but legs that folded up to store easily in their vehicles. Sumner developed the folding jack stand, which has turned out to be the most widely used three-legged stand in the world. For larger pipe, there was a need for greater stability, and for the ability to level the pipe and rotate it for rollout welding. Sumner’s Adjust-A-Roll, also introduced in the 1960s, featured 900kg capacity and the ability to adjust the pipe level from either side of the stand. Later, the ProRoll was introduced and offered stand height adjustment that improved welder comfort when working a variety of different sizes of pipe. I n the early 1960s, Sumner Manufacturing recognised that all pipe jack stands were hand made by welders, and what one person made would vary in size and capacity to what someone else made. Parts were not interchangeable, features were questionable, and there was no standard. Compared to our highly safety- regulated society today, home pipe stands could be found on job sites which had no load rating and the construction of the stand was dubious.

Max Jax

Max Jax2

Perhaps the greatest innovation was a stand that not only allowed the welder to level and rollout weld, but could also be used as a transport cart. Sumner’s Max Jax was developed in the 1990s, and became widely used because it reduced the number of times a pipe was lifted by a crane to be moved from station to station in a fab shop. The patent-protected Max Jax2 is the latest version, and offers a new roller head design for better roller-wheel-to-pipe contact and an invertible stand (a base that offers both high and low operating positions). Pipe rotators are commonly used in fab shops, and the combination of pipe sizes and rotator operating height can be a nightmare for a shop foreman. The 4 to 36" Max Jax2 can accommodate this situation as well as transporting the pipe around the shop. Pipe clamps come in all flavours Pipe and tubing clamps are like flavours of ice cream – there is a wide variety to choose from. Like vanilla and chocolate, four or five styles of clamp are the most preferred. Patent records are loaded with old designs of clamps, from a vee frame that holds two mating pipe lengths together with a chain, to wooden wedges that are used under pipe for alignment on a welder’s table. Today, the most popular style of clamp attaches to the end of a pipe and has three 4-, 8- and 12-o’clock adjustment positions to level a mating pipe, fitting or flange. An example of such a clamp is the patented Sumner Ultra Qwik Clamp. Available in three sizes from 1 to 12", the Ultra Qwik has stainless steel contact points, so it can be used on stainless or carbon pipe. The adjustment handle slides so that the clamp can be used on short pipe lengths against a wall. A final feature is a push-button release to allow the arms to open and close rapidly.

Adjust-A-Roll

Heavy Duty jack

ProRoll

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september 2016 Tube ProducTs InTernaTIonal