Branch and nozzle development
The branch that enters another part: saddle (tee), tangential inlet, conical nozzle, rectangular tap, nozzles on a cone and the Y piece. The branch plate comes from here; the hole in the receiving part lives with the shells and the holed cones.
Pipe Branch (Tee)
The mouth cut into the end of one pipe so it seats onto another — the saddle. Work out the branch free, with the ordinate table; the main pipe just takes the hole.
Y Piece Trunk (Breeches)
The lower pipe of a Y branch, cut as a fish mouth: two mitre planes meeting on the crotch line. Flat, it gives two peaks and two troughs.
Cone Branch
The branch entering a conical hopper horizontally. The wall radius changes with height, so the mouth comes out deeper at the top than at the bottom.
Offset Pipe Branch (Tangential Inlet)
The branch whose axis does not cross the main pipe — set to one side so the flow enters spinning instead of head-on. The ordinary branch cannot do it.
Rectangular Tap on Pipe
The rectangular collar seated on a shell — where a rectangular duct enters a round pipe. Each pair of walls is bitten by the pipe differently.
Conical Tap (Conical Tee)
The nozzle that leaves the pipe flared at the base and tapers to the collar: flaring spreads the weld stress instead of concentrating it.
Parallel-Axis Nozzle on a Cone
The upright nozzle on a hopper or a conical roof: its axis runs parallel to the cone, offset by v, so the flange comes out level.
Rectangular Tap on a Cone
The rectangular collar on the wall of a cone — the grille mouth and the chute on a conical hopper, where the host radius changes with height.
Conical Tap on Cone
The sixth of six branch-and-host combinations: the conical branch entering a cone. On a hopper the flared base matters more, not less.
Conical Y Piece (Tapered Breeches)
The Y branch whose two outlets taper. Its leg is a cone cut at the large end by two different planes in one lap, and no other part does that.
Which branch to use
- A pipe entering another pipe, the saddle or tee: Pipe Branch (Tee). The hole in the receiving shell is in Cylinder with Branch Hole.
- A cyclone tangential inlet, the branch flush with the wall: Offset Pipe Branch (Tangential Inlet).
- A conical nozzle, the manway neck or conical tee: Conical Tap (Conical Tee).
- A grille or damper collar on a pipe: Rectangular Tap on Pipe; on the wall of a cone, Rectangular Tap on a Cone.
- A nozzle in the wall of a hopper: Cone Branch square to the wall, Parallel-Axis Nozzle on a Cone upright, Conical Tap on Cone when the nozzle itself is conical.
- A Y piece, the breeches: Y Piece Trunk (Breeches) with cylindrical legs and Conical Y Piece with legs that reduce.
What they all share
The nozzle is the branch, and its plate opens like a cylinder or a cone cut by the surface of the part that receives it: the intersection line is calculated line by line, and it is what becomes the wave on the opened plate. The receiving part, with the hole already marked, is under rolled shells and cones.
The dimensions are the diameters of the two pipes, the angle between them, the offset where there is one, and the thickness. The result comes with the ordinates for marking out, the PDF template at 1:1, the DXF and the 3D view with the branch fitted to the part.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a saddle branch in sheet metal work?
- It is the branch of one pipe into another: the branch is cut by its intersection curve with the main pipe, and the opened plate has the fish-mouth shape that gives it its name. The Pipe Branch (Tee) develops the branch at any angle, and the hole in the main pipe is in the holed shell.
- How do I develop a 90° tee?
- With the diameters of the two pipes and the thickness, the branch opens into a rectangle with a wave at the entering end; the height of the wave on each line is the distance to the surface of the main pipe. The branch page gives the ordinates and the template.
- Does the hole in the main pipe come with it?
- Not on the same page: the hole sits on the plate of the pipe that receives the branch, and it comes from Cylinder with Branch Hole, the same intersection seen from the other side.