Monthly Archives: February 2024
- February 29, 2024
Tadpole Tape - Is it Right For Your Application?
Tadpole Tape Seals under light pressure while resisting flame and prolonged high temperatures
Tadpole tapes are resilient and nonabsorbent, flame-resistant gasketing materials. They are especially suited for applications requiring sealing under light pressure where bolting force is limited, such as doors, aircraft mounting rings, turbine flanges and combustion chamber inlets.
- February 27, 2024
Freudenberg Energy Saving Seal (ESS)
Thanks to the combination of elastomers capable of withstanding extraordinarily high thermal loads and a friction-optimized sealing lip, the energy-saving seal (ESS) enables the power loss in drive assemblies to be greatly reduced.
The radial shaft seal ESS improves sealing performance by reducing friction between the seal lip and crankshaft through a reduction in radial load of 50% when compared to sprung rubber lip seals and 75% when compared to PTFE lip seals.
Not only does the
- February 22, 2024
The Importance of Sealing Your Valves - Brewery Edition
You've probably seen the video. A Minnesota brewery worker had an unexpected surprise when a stream of beer exploded out of a brewery container, sending him flying backwards. Brendan Babcock, a brewer at Back Channel Brewing Co., was checking a brewery container in January when ale suddenly shot out of a tank valve.
The stream pushed him backwards, sending him barrelling to the floor, where he landed on his back. Babcock leapt
- February 19, 2024
Gallagher Fluid Seals partners with the world's top gasket suppliers. Our strong partnerships allow us to provide you with the best gasketing options, from PTFE, Metallic, and Compressed Non-Asbestos
Choosing the Correct Semi-Metallic Gasket
There are many variations of semi-metallic gasket available in today's market. The combination of metal and a soft gasket material merges the sealing ability of the soft material with the structural integrity of the metal.
The most common styles of semi-metallic gasket include spiral wound gaskets, corrugated, jacketed, and kammprofile gaskets.
Pumps & Systems magazine outlined the proper way to select a semi-metallic gasket.
Gasket selection suggestions
Choosing a gasket depends on a few different factors: operating conditions, fluid compatibility, mechanical features of the joint
- February 16, 2024
Clean-in-place seals, or CIP seals, were developed to allow a seal to remain in place. This is especially important when the seal gland is partially open, allowing the seal to be flushed of debris.
In a food application, the same chemicals used to clean or flush the system would be used to clean the seal gland. Similarly, when other products such as pharmaceutical or adverse chemicals needed to be flushed, the CIP seal does an excellent job being open to flushing.
- February 14, 2024
Video - Basics of Fluoroelastomers (FKM)
Fluroelastomers, also known as FKM are a class of synthetic rubber designed for very high temperature operation with excellent levels of chemical resistance. FKM is not a single entity but a family of fluoropolymer rubbers. FKM, sometimes referred to as Viton®, is a registered trademark for fluroelastomer by DuPont.
Fluoroelastomers differ from other elastomers in that it has fluorine linked to the polymer backbone.
In this video webinar, you can learn the differences between elastomers and fluoroelastomers, and how the amount of fluorine in an elastomer affects it's chemical resistance and properties.
0:35 Why is it Important ot Understand Elastomers?
1:43 What is an Elastomer?
2:30 What is a Fluoroelastomer
- February 09, 2024
Thermoplastic for Lithium-Ion Batteries
Electric cars with lithium-ion batteries have a range that is suitable for everyday use and require a high degree of safety. Various safety measures are being implemented to make sure that any thermal runaway of the battery is prevented or delayed. So far, plastic components used for this purpose have generally failed to meet the automotive industry’s strict test standards for electric drives. This is different with Quantix ULTRA from Freudenberg Sealing Technologies: The new material class can withstand very high temperatures. It does not melt or ignite. In laboratory tests, a two-millimeter-thick material sample can even resist an applied flame with a temperature of 2,192 degrees Fahrenheit for over 25 minutes.
Further tests simulate the emission of hot particles under high pressure, which can occur if the gases in battery cells are abruptly discharged. Quantix ULTRA withstands the stress test for 20 seconds. A two-millimeter-thick
- February 06, 2024
Extra Large Wear Plates from Vesconite
Vesconite Bearings is expanding its manufacturing capabilities to meet the increasing demand for larger low-friction wear plates.
Gallagher Fluid Seals' partner, Vesconite Bearings, is making a substantial investment in additional equipment to produce wear plates of unprecedented sizes, notes CEO Dr Jean-Patrick Leger.
The company aims to introduce 8 x 4 ft wear plates within the next year.
Vesconite has been responding to customer requirements for different plates for many years, and wear plates is no exception.
Customers have
- February 02, 2024
Corrosion with Braided Packing
Galvanic corrosion is an electrochemical process that occurs between two dissimilar metals, or between a metal and a conductive non-metallic material, when both are exposed to an electrically conductive media. In the case of a packing gland, it occurs between a metal component and the carbon or graphite packing. Under these conditions, the material that is closest to the anodic end of the galvanic scale will be corroded in preference to the one that is closest to the cathodic end of the scale. (See Table 1.) As the distance between materials on the galvanic scale increases, a corresponding rise occurs in the rate and the extent of the corrosion.
In a valve or a pump using packing made of either graphite or carbon, a galvanic reaction may be initiated as soon as any electrically conductive fluid, such as water, is introduced. Since graphite is more cathodic than the metals that make up valves and pumps, it is the metal that may