What are Swagelok fittings used for?

[Matt Day]

I picked up a container of these fittings recently with some other items. What are these fittings normally used for? Only thing I could see myself using them for it would be compressor fittings but I’m pretty sure these have other industrial uses. funny thing is the Swagelok factory was in the town I used to live in in Ohio.

thx

[Jerry Bruette]

We use them for high pressure lines with seamless stainless tubing at work. They'd be overkill for compressor fittings unless your compressor puts out 10,000 PSI.

[Timothy Thorpe Allen]

I used a lot of swagelock fittings building vacuum lines and reaction vessel manifolds in a geochemistry lab.

[Matt Day]

Gotcha, guess I see why these appear to be about $25 a pop. Any idea where I could sell these - online or local?

[Jerry Bruette]

You could try the Bay. They're sorta special items. You'd have to find a buyer with a specific need for the selection you have.
Good Luck.

[Matt Day]

Gotcha, thanks Jerry.

[Prashun Patel]

We used them in my plant for stainless tubing for compressed air and nitrogen.

I had extras that I sold easily on eBay. They are very expensive new.

[Jim Koepke]

We used similar items many years ago during my employment with a large (ship and power plant) diesel engine maker for the pneumatic logic system controlling the engines.

jtk

[George Yetka]

I sold over the past year a few hundred on ebay cleaning up our shop. We used them for not too dangerous lab gas. We were pretty big on it about 20 years ago we did about 8-10 miles of a combo of orbital with vcr glands, Coaxial, and swage. Since then the fittings were sitting so I put them on the bay. Look up the model number on there and look for the low price list it there and let ebay figure out shipping.

[Alex Zeller]

They are pricey because they come unusually clean designed for high purity gasses. They have a dual ferrule system for better sealing to the tubing. I've heard Swagelok is starting to get into brake lines for vehicles. I'm not sure what the ones you have would be worth. Out of the package makes them less desirable IMO. The average Joe isn't likely to use them so you need to find the right person.

[roger wiegand]

All kinds of analytical instruments that use high pressure liquids and gasses. HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography), gas chromatographs, and mass spectrometers in my case. I'd be pretty nervous about using used fittings of unknown origin in my lab so wouldn't be looking on Ebay. Perhaps the meth cookers have moved upscale? I honestly don't know if there are more common applications.

[Keith Outten]

The Swagelok company has been around for a long time. Back in the 70's we used millions of dollars of their fittings in power plants, very expensive high pressure stainless and inconel fittings.. I used to carry over a thousand dollars of Swagelok valves in my pocket on one job, couldn't stop people from stealing them from my desk

They had a rule about tightening their fittings, finger tight and then one and a half turns. If they are tightened any more they can leak.

[Mike Cutler]

The assortment of fittings you have is quite nice. All Stainless Steel for the most part.
You do have at least two generations of Swagelok fittings though. Most are "gaugeable", a few are not. Swagelok makes a tool that identifies if you have made up the fitting correctly.
The Swagelok fitting uses a two piece ferrule set. The newest design has two separate sealing surfaces. Each ferrule, front and rear creates it's own independent seal.
If you want to use them, here is how they work;
For stainless steel tubing the nut an ferrule are tighened 1-1/4 turns from finger tight for low pressure applications. 2500psi and less. For high pressure applications with stainless it is 1-1/4 turn from snug, or the point where the ferrules and tubing do not move.
For soft line it is 3/4 turn from finger tight, then check for leaks, and tighten a flat at a time.
Those are the Mercedez Benz of fittings. I've made up thousands and thousands of them. I've seen them installed wrong, ferrules backwards, missing and still hold back 2500psi for decades.

[Matt Day]

Thanks guys! I posted them on eBay as they’re not exactly useful to me.