There are so many options when it comes to gasketing material for your process or product that choosing the right one can be overwhelming.
Fortunately, Gallagher's six decades in the sealing business has allowed us to become experts in specifying the correct material for every application.
One of the more versatile materials in our arsenal, for both standard and custom-shaped gaskets, is GORE® GR Sheet Gasketing.
According to the GORE website, GR Sheet Gasketing is "designed to outperform both conventional (filled and skived) PTFE and other ePTFE gasketing in steel piping and equipment."
It has the chemical resistance you would find in conventional PTFE sheet gasketing, minus the creep and cold flow normally found in that material.
It's stronger and has more dimensional stability than other PTFE gaskets.
GR Sheet Gasketing is highly conformable to rough or irregular sealing surfaces, and compresses into an extremely tough gasket, leading to a tight, long-lasting seal.
It is a versatile, single-solution material whether you are working with standard or custom gasketing shapes and sizes. Let's take a look at what makes it unique.
Proprietary, patented technology
Made from specially-engineered 100% expanded PTFE (ePTFE), Gore's patented manufacturing technology creates an ePTFE sheet with the highest degree of expansion available. While other ePTFE material has many un-expanded nodes, the increased expansion of GORE GR Sheet Gasketing gives it superior tensile strength and dimensional stability. This creates significant performance advantages in demanding applications.
Superior creep and cold flow resistance
GORE GR Sheet Gasketing's exceptional tensile strength lets it retain greater dimensional stability in-use — in both thickness and width — than any other PTFE-based gasket.
Because its thickness is more dimensionally stable than any other PTFE-based gasket, GORE GR Sheet Gasketing retains a greater percentage of bolt load in operation. This provides a more reliable seal, especially in thermal cycling and higher temperature conditions.
The width of GORE GR Sheet Gasketing also remains more dimensionally stable, thus avoiding gasket intrusion into the pipe bore which can hurt process performance.
While providing a larger window for blowout safety, the dimensionally stable seal can also increase process uptime and lower maintenance costs connected to with gasket re-torque and replacement.
Exceptionally reliable sealing performance
Crush-resistance tests have found that GORE GR Sheet Gasketing excels at withstanding the extreme conditions of industrial flange sealing. It delivers a wider safety margin of seal reliability, both at upon installation and in operation at elevated temperatures.
"Chemically inert GORE GR Sheet Gasketing seals durably, whether in strong alkali-, acid- or solvent-based process systems. It resists all media (pH 0-14) except for molten/dissolved alkali metals and elemental fluorine," GORE says on its website
Greater consistency, fewer problems
GORE's consistent, precise manufacturing processes give GR Sheet Gasketing a much more uniform distribution of mass than other ePTFE sheets, leading to a more uniform and reliable seal.
GORE GR Sheet Gasketing easily conforms to common flange imperfections, getting rid of the need for flange resurfacing. It also increases the window of applicability and create a highly reliable initial seal, so start-ups can be more trouble free.