Steel SAE ORB Fittings

An SAE O-ring boss fitting is a port connection, so it spends its life screwed into somebody else's casting. The straight thread pulls it down until the O-ring is trapped in the chamfer at the port face, and two metals then sit in permanent contact. Pump housings, valve bodies and manifolds are steel or iron, which makes a carbon steel fitting the galvanically matched half of that pair rather than a compromise.

Get the pairing wrong and the fitting pays for it: zinc-plated steel threaded into a stainless or aluminium port and then wetted will corrode preferentially at the joint. Matched into iron and steel, the same part is the cheapest and highest-pressure option in the SAE J1926 and ISO 11926 range. Its threads also gall far less than stainless, which matters when an adjustable elbow is backed off and re-seated.

Where it's specified

• Pump, motor and valve ports — the fitting matches the casting instead of setting up a couple with it
• Adjustable elbows and run tees — the outlet is clocked to the hose route, then locked without disturbing the seal
• Tightly spaced manifold blocks — forgiving threads survive the repeated backing-off close spacing forces
• High-pressure port work — the O-ring stays captive in the boss rather than distorting like a crush washer

Range and materials. Adjustable and non-adjustable 45° and 90° elbows, straights, branch and run tees, reducers and plugs, converting at the far end to JIC 37°, ORFS, NPT or BSP. Bodies are free-machining carbon steel, trivalent (Cr3+) zinc plated; adjustable styles ship complete with lock nut and back-up washer.

Ordering notes. Run the lock nut and washer fully up, thread in until the washer meets the port face, then back off no more than one turn to aim the outlet before tightening the nut against the boss. Confirm the O-ring compound suits the fluid, and size by the port thread, not the tube on the other end.