Industrial equipment that is used for transporting or lifting objects of great mass or of harmful nature must be sturdy and rigid enough to handle these materials without bringing injury or death to the operator of the equipment. In almost all cases, this industrial equipment has moving parts that must be securely fastened or held in place so that the equipment will not become out of control or simply not function. The most common way to secure a moving part on equipment is to affix a flange to that component. Flanges serve as the primary place-holding rims and seals for heavy-duty apparatus. Over time, flange manufacturers have engineered flange designs to be compatible with almost any standardized fitted part that is used in today’s industrial environments.

Imagine that a diesel locomotive hauling 100 cars is traveling down a track at 40 miles per hour on a railroad. The train has lots of momentum and must somehow be guided along the train track to ensure it stays on course. Well, how can you do that with thin metal wheels that naturally slide on metal rails? If you design the wheels to have a flange on the inside of each wheelbase (to where the flange touches the interior of the railroad track), it effectively fits the locomotive to the track so that it moves with the track and doesn’t immediately slide off and cause a significant portion of a major railroad to be shut down for weeks while a crew repositions the locomotive. The wheel flanges are the main articles keeping the train on course with the track. Train engineers constantly rely on those to keep their trains from becoming derailed!

When a company wishes to transfer gases or liquids over a long distance, they obviously must use pipes. But, the longer the distance that a pipeline is run, the more likely it is to need to overcome natural obstacles. Running a pipeline over a river or canyon is difficult since the pipe must be above ground and exposed to avoid the sometimes violent currents of the river below. Engineers will implement what is called an anchor flange that does what its name implies: anchors the pipe to the sides of the river valley or canyon that it needs to cross. These sturdy flanges are sometimes secured in concrete to provide extra support to suspended pipes. Additionally, when a pipe is above ground, forces such as strong winds can twist the pipes a small amount, endangering the effectiveness of the seals that are made between the segments of the pipe. To increase the overall strength of a segmented pipe and prevent the substance within from leaking out, engineers fit piping with a pipe flange. These are essentially large sealed rims at the edge of the piping segments that fasten to each other with many, many bolts and have a sealing agent. With an arsenal of flanging like this, the United States’ important pipes will never leak!

Many companies in the manufacturing industry have taken up or even based their company entirely off of the manufacturing of flanges. They are such valuable devices for keeping mechanical moving parts from shifting out their proper locations. There are even flanges in your own joints that keep your arms and legs in place!