Designing with inflatable seals for the medical industry
Seals are central parts of the design of medical equipment with moveable, interlocking parts that must be secured for sanitary, thermal, or radioactive reasons.
Designing with inflatable seals requires the inclusion of a source of compressed gas, which is used to inflate seals in the medical device industry and it is often already available on the plant floor, in a laboratory, or medical environment. It is also possible to inflate with liquids rather than gas in demanding applications, and water would be an acceptable inflation media in this sector, although not common. For some low-temperature applications, a seal may be inflated with a blend of glycerine and water.
Designing with inflatable seals
Seals used on doors and openings should be part of the early phases of product design. In some cases, contact seals may be effective, but they often require substantial force be applied to load the seal, which impacts product design and increases manufacturing cost. Inflatable seals enable more cost-effective machinery fabrication for two reasons:
Inflatable seals are more forgiving because the seal can inflate to close a gap between structural members and achieve equal sealing pressure around the flange as long if the gap falls within a broad tolerance. An inflatable seal will work whether the gap spans 3mm or 10mm, for instance. A compression seal or other contact seal will not be effective unless the seal and flange contact each other with great precision, which can be difficult to achieve on new equipment. Even a robust and precision-manufactured machine with well-designed flanges will lose some of its geometric integrity as hinges and other components deform or bend over years of use. Throughout the course of the equipment lifecycle, a contact seal may become problematic and exhibit leakage.
Inflatable seals enable lighter and more affordable methods of equipment fabrication. The force exerted on the chassis of a piece of equipment means doors and related components must be thicker, and perhaps machined instead of welded. These components are typically made of stainless steel, and inflatable seals might be attractive due to lowered material costs.
Which equipment needs inflatable seals?
Isolators — where a leak-tight enclosure can be critical for environmental health protection due to hazardous substances or processes. — can secure glove boxes, access gates, transfer systems and filtration systems that handle toxic or sterile components.
Sterilizers — which may rely on heat, chemicals, irradiation, or filtration — may be suitable for desktop autoclave sterilizers, sterilizing tabletop autoclaves and static air depyrogenation sterilizers.
Dryers and freeze dryers - used to sterilize everything from machine components to glassware.
Material handling functions - to raise, lower, or grasp objects.
O-rings are a critical component of equipment, machinery, and a variety of other applications. Shaped like a donut, the O-Ring can plays a significant role in industries across the globe. Most often, they are made from elastomers. They are designed to prevent fluid and gas from leaking around mating surfaces. Leakage on mating surfaces can cause serious damage and disrupt machining processes. That's why O-Rings are vitally important as they can effectively prevent this from happening. O-Rings can be made using a variety of different manufacturing processes, as you can see below.
Four Common Ways O-Rings are Manufactured
O-rings are an integral part of many applications as they are vital in maintaining the function and purpose of them.
Compression Molding (Transfer Molding): Compression molding is a highly efficient and cost effective technique.
Gallagher Fluid Seals is a Parker Distributor is proud to be proud to be one of the few premier distributors to qualify as a “Parker Seal Technology Center (STC)”.
Original content can be found on Parker’s Websiteand was written by Nathan Wells, application engineer, Engineered Polymer Systems Division.
Heavy duty equipment moves industry forward in all climates, from the sunny Caribbean to icy Greenland. Effective, reliable sealing is what allows hydraulic systems in heavy duty equipment to do work, no matter the temperature. Reliable sealing solutions allow cylinders on dump trucks
The world has entered a pivotal moment in water treatment, and the challenges continue to worsen as municipalities grapple with the risk of encountering premature failure in elastomeric gaskets. Such a risk brings up several problems, including reduced efficiency, sudden equipment failure, costly maintenance and downtime, and perhaps worst of all — contamination.
Prior to 2013, gasketing products were not subject to the NSF61 (Drinking Water System Components – Health Effects) standard, leaving a critical gap in the safety and compliance of materials used in contact with potable water. However, as the demand for reusing treated wastewater grows, the influx of chlorine and chloramine levels — ensuring potability — has exposed the vulnerability of elastomeric gaskets. This has emerged as a serious issue.
In the ever-changing world of water treatment, it is important to address this challenge and explore innovative solutions to safeguard the reliability and longevity of gasketing
In many countries, the expansion of renewable energy is an imperative. To ensure the energy transition’s success, it will be crucial to transport the electricity generated in hydroelectric plants and in solar and wind farms to consumers with minimal energy loss. New electric power lines are now expected to supplement those already in existence. After all, more energy from windy coastlines has to travel deep into the interior. Distribution stations and substations are part of these high-voltage networks. They connect overhead power lines, which transmit electricity at more than 110,000 volts, with local distribution networks that operate at low voltages. Substations can be designed more compactly with completely encapsulated, gas-insulated switchgear as opposed to those using ambient air. Accordingly, gas-insulated switchgears can be used in buildings in a space-saving manner, which is important in urban areas. When electric circuits are switched
Gallagher Fluid Seals is a Parker Distributor is proud to be proud to be one of the few premier distributors to qualify as a “Parker Seal Technology Center (STC)”.
This is the second part of a three-part series on silicone processing options for life science applications. In part one, we discussed the chemistries of silicone. This article concentrates on the methods and processing of medical silicones.
We’ll be discussing, at a high level, three different methods: profile extrusion, which is quite common to design products; compression molding; and injection molding.
Profile extrusion
There is multi-layer extrusion, co-extrusion, and a variety of different profiles. They can range from solid profiles to hollow profiles that are symmetric to non-axisymmetric. This is a smattering of the types of extrusion that one can find and design for use in life sciences.
There are variations on this term that we use very generally as extrusion
Gallagher Fluid Seals is a Parker Distributor is proud to be proud to be one of the few premier distributors to qualify as a “Parker Seal Technology Center (STC)”.
Neglecting routine maintenance can cost you in seal performance or, in some cases, end with catastrophic failure. Prolonged downtime will incur losses that exceed the temporary cost of preventative maintenance.
It’s important to identify seal contaminants and their sources before they turn into larger issues. Here are some tips on what to look for and how to deal with them.
Common contaminants
Here are some typical contaminants you’ll come across:
From original manufacture: debris, casting sand, paint, pipe sealant, cleaning rag fibers and weld spatters
Pre-existing particle matter in system fluid before being entered into the system (through lack of pre-filtering)
Ingressed contamination through rod/piston seals, component seals or poorly fitted covers, such as dirt, mud, water, dust and oil
Ingressed particles that attract or generate larger particles causing abrasion, corrosion, cavitation, erosion
Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene, or UHMW, is an inexpensive easy to acquire seal material which, in the right environment, provides an excellent seal.
There are a set of operating criteria which designers should follow to take advantage of the many benefits that other materials like PTFE can’t offer.
In this article, we’ll explore the uses of UHMW, how and where to apply it, and the pitfalls to avoid.
What are the Best Uses for UHMW?
UHMW is used in a variety of seal and bearing applications.
High-Pressure, High Eccentricity Seal Solution Demonstrates 50% Improvement
On pressure and side-load performance of a fluid application
Recently, a customer was having difficulty with a seal failure on a fluid power application. The high-pressure, high-eccentricity seal operates in conditions up to 200,000 pv at 3000 psi and could not exceed maximum shaft deflection of 0.005″.
Unitized seals for input and output pinions in gear boxes, axle wheel ends, and trunnion seals
Vanseal works with these types of seal applications frequently and used a Unitized Seal that uses several components to address each of the various sealing challenges.