Monthly Archives: March 2017
- March 30, 2017
Gallagher Fluid Seals represents a number of expansion joint manufacturers, enabling us to provide an expansion joint for any piping system in any industry. The ABRA-LINE™ Rubber Expansion Joints from Garlock are meant for highly-abrasive applications.
The Garlock ABRA-LINE™ Style 4394 Rubber Expansion Joint is a multi-convoluted, lightweight expansion joint, designed for lower pressure applications that require significant amounts of movement, axially and/or laterally. Its low spring rates make it ideal for load cell, bin activator, vibrating bin, silo, and shaker boot applications. The below success story comes directly from Garlock and an application using the ABRA-LINE™ Style 4394 joints.
- March 28, 2017
Article re-posted with permission from Parker Hannifin Sealing & Shielding Team. Original content can be found on Parker’s Blog.
Dovetail grooves are a great mechanism for holding O-rings in place. The retention feature makes having an upside-down or vertical face seal groove much easier. However, installing an O-ring into these grooves can be tricky without proper technique. The most important variable for installing an O-ring into a dovetail gland is making sure the seal is sized properly.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJje7GgFBbQ[/embed]
Start the installation by directly aligning the O-ring
- March 23, 2017
The spectrum of elastomers range from very simple forms, like the natural rubber already in use in the 19th century, to modern, high performance elastomers from the second half of the 20th century. They are continually being improved.
This blog article is the second in a two-part series discussing the many different elastomer materials available today, as discussed in Freudenberg's The World of Freudenberg Sealing Technologies.
The first post discussed Natural Rubber (NR), Nitrile Rubber (NBR), and Hydrogenated Nitrile Rubber (HNBR).Polyacrylate Rubber (ACM)
ACM elastomers are made of polar acrylic acids. As polar materials, they display good resistance to high-additive lubricating oils. Due to its saturated¹ main chain, the material exhibits good resistance to ozone, weather and heated air. Petroleum-based oils and fluids (for engines, transmissions and automatic transmissions) cannot harm them. But the material offers only moderate strength and low elasticity while displaying limited cold behavior. - March 21, 2017
Gallagher recently released our Introduction to Perfluoroelastomers White Paper, available for download on our site. This was written by Russell Schnell, a current contracted employee of Gallagher Fluid Seals, and more importantly, a former Senior Application Engineer with the Kalrez® perfluoroelastomer parts business at DuPont. The following excerpt is the first section of the White Paper, discussing the history or elastomers and perfluoroelastomers, and the chemistry that helped create these modern materials.
Introduction to the World of Perfluoroelastomers
The use of elastomers is widespread in our world. Elastomers have many uses including: sealing fluids, for tires, in chemical plants, in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, for dust and moisture seals on cell phones, and seals on aircraft engines. The function of the elastomer and technology involved can vary from something as simple as a barrier to rain water, to seals in automobile engines, to critical sealing applications on the Space Station. Selection of the correct elastomer in an application is very important for successful and long term equipment operation. Although many different elastomers exist in the marketplace, when the highest service performance is needed, in terms of chemical and high temperature resistance, the choice is perfluoroelastomers.A perfluoroelastomer can be represented by the letters: FFKM or FFPM (ASTM and ISO designations, respectively). The word itself has two parts, perfluoro (meaning fully fluorinated), and elastomer. Perfluoroelastomers exhibit many properties similar to PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), which is also fully fluorinated and considered inert to almost all solvents. PTFE is often referred to as Teflon®, which is a registered trademark of The Chemours Company. PTFE is a plastic, and when compressed, will not recover to its original shape. However, elastomers contain crosslinks, which act as springs to give the material resiliency and the ability to recover after a part has been compressed. This resistance to permanent compression (compression set) gives the material the ability to maintain a seal over time. Finally, while whereas plastics are crystalline, elastomers are amorphous at room temperature; they can be easily compressed and will mold themselves to maintain a seal. Given the chemical structure and performance similarities of FFKMs to PTFE, perfluoroelastomers are sometimes referred to as an elastomeric form of PTFE.
- March 16, 2017
At Gallagher Fluid Seals, we strive to deliver sealing solutions where there was previously a failure - to be our customers' Seal Specialist. Our position as an independent distributor allows us the freedom to be truly objective, analyzing the various options available from our suppliers, and providing the optimal sealing configuration for your application.
But with many different product lines at our fingertips, how do we know what seal, gasket, o-ring will work the best in your application? We position ourselves as The Seal Specialist, but it's not just a motto or a tagline, it's a culture here at Gallagher.
In 2016, our sales team attended over 1200 hours of training... that's more than 150 eight hour work days... that's over 30 five-day work weeks. They trained with some of our key vendors such as Parker, DuPont, Garlock, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, GORE, Thermoseal, and Thordon, to gain a better understanding of their product lines.
- March 14, 2017
We've previously spoken about Fluid Power Sealing Theory and the multitude of options when it comes to selecting the most suitable sealing product for your application. We also published the first article in this three-part series, which covered a handful of Fluid Power Applications. This article is the second of a three-part series, focusing on common fluid power products, along with a description of the sealing systems that are typically used in those products. You can also download the entire Fluid Power Application White Paper by clicking on the image below.
- March 09, 2017
Gallagher has long been a top Parker Distributor. The Parker TechSeal Division designs and manufactures custom elastomer products using extrusion, precision cutting, and fabricating technologies. The extruded rubber products can be supplied in multiple forms such as cut parts, long lengths, bulk footage, or fabricated gaskets and seals. The video below provides an insight into TechSeal's day to day operation including manufacturing, material development, and design assistance.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmBC3Hbnpjc[/embed]
- March 07, 2017
There are a plethora of choices when it comes to gasketing material. But if you are in the food processing, it is crucial that every item that makes contact with the gasket is left unaffected. And although silicone is inherently non-toxic, only a specially formulated food grade silicone is fit for use with consumables.
Silicone is an ideal elastomer to use if you require FDA-approved rubber. Since there is an emphasis on rubbers being suitable for repeated use in the food processing industry, silicone is ideal being that the material is not susceptible to harmful microbial agents or other contaminants. Food grade gaskets and seals should be able to function for long periods of time without falling prey to harmful contamination, or degradation.
- March 02, 2017
The spectrum of elastomers range from very simple forms, like the natural rubber already in use in the 19th century, to modern, high performance elastomers from the second half of the 20th century. They are continually being improved.
This blog article will be the first in a two-part series discussing the many different elastomer materials available today, as discussed in Freudenberg's The World of Freudenberg Sealing Technologies.
Natural Rubber (NR)
In its original form, latex is greasy and sticky. Natural rubber is an elastic polymer, built on isoprene as its monomer. To make it usable technically, the long polyisoprene chains of natural rubber are cross-linked with one another through vulcanization – which involves the addition of sulfur under pressure and heat.In the process, sulfur atoms insert themselves between the double bonds of adjacent chain molecules – the majority of the double bonds are maintained. The result is a three-dimensional molecule network whose parts can only shift against one another within certain limits.