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
Often times people think that a seal is just a seal or that the materials don't matter, but this is far from the truth. No two sealing materials are exactly the same and have their own unique characteristics that make one material perfect for a specific application while another could completely fail. Materials are truly the foundation of every seal and can't be overlooked when you are considering what kind of seal to use. When you are working in the food and beverage industry and are exposed to challenging conditions and extremely strict purity standards the materials become even more significant. When you are working with a specialized application like a bottling line you want your seal manufacturer to be a true expert, this is where Freudenberg Sealing Technologies' long history of developing highly specialized materials sets them apart.
Bottling lines allow manufacturers to rapidly fill thousands of bottles perfectly making them a key element in food & beverage manufacturing facilities. While this equipment is incredibly efficient and has allowed manufacturers to greatly increase production, it offers some unique challenges for sealing solutions. Seals experience rapid and repetitive movements, challenging media, and are required to meet high purity standards often set by the FDA.
With these demanding applications and strict requirements, sealing manufacturers need a lot of expertise and specialized materials/ designs. Today we are going to highlight our Distributor Fredenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies and their brand of Freudenberg seals designed specifically for bottle filling and process industry applications.
CNC machining, which stands for Computer Numerical Control, is a manufacturing process in which pre-programmed computer software dictates the movement of tools and machinery.
The process can be used to control a range of complex machinery, from grinders and lathes to mills and CNC routers.
But in our case, Gallagher is utilizing this process to cut both custom and standard seal profiles for our customers.
PFAS is a generic term referring to a group compounds that contain Carbon-to-Fluorine bonds, C-F3 and C-F21. This includes all fluoropolymers and fluoroelastomers such as FKM, FFKM, PTFE, and many others. These materials are extremely useful in critical applications due to their properties such as resistance to heat, chemicals, and environmental exposure. These important characteristics result from the strong bond between the fluorine and carbon atoms, which is unmatched in the world of polymers. PFAS-based materials are highly desirable for a number of industries and applications, including semiconductor manufacturing, lithium ion batteries, smart phones, medical technologies, and aerospace.
While there can be many excellent uses for PFAS base polymers, some PFAS chemicals have shown environmental and health drawbacks. Due to their extreme resistance to heat and chemicals, they do not break down in the environment,
Freudenberg Sealing Technologies' peroxidic-crosslinked fluoroelastomer material 75 FKM 239961 now also has received pharma-specific approval according to USP Chapter 87. The result of the in vitro conformity test confirms that the material has no toxic effects on cell cultures. With this advancement, bisphenol crosslinked FKM materials can be replaced in the food industry. The immediately available high-performance material is very resistant to media and temperature and is ultrapure.
FKM has become an integral material for the process industry. It is suitable for applications under high temperatures and with aggressive media. These properties are critically important for the food and beverage as well as in the pharmaceutical industries. Those beneficial properties lead to high demand for the material and this in turn to long delivery times. The material from Freudenberg Sealing Technologies meets high purity standards and
Every year, approximately 1 in 6 people in the U.S. get sick (~48 million people), 100,000+ are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne illnesses or diseases, according to data from the CDC. Though this is largely a preventable problem, it still poses a significant public health burden.
The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), enacted by Congress in 2011, is "transforming the nation’s food safety system by shifting the focus from responding to foodborne illness to preventing it."
Although one might think the
The world is experiencing an unprecedented confluence of supply disruptions, and low-temperature fluorocarbon rubber polymers may be the most directly impacted. Some polymer companies have announced the discontinuation of some grades, while others are severely limited in the quantity they can produce. As a result, many seal manufacturers have announced that they need to meet customer demand for these high-performance materials.
While there are dozens of unique elastomers used for specific applications throughout the world, this GFS "elastomer cheat sheet" discusses the properties of the most common types of o-ring elastomers. If your equipment or product uses o-rings, it more-than-likely contains one of these nine elastomer types.
Learn about:
As we continue the GFS series on Surface Finish, this next tech bulletin will help you understand the advantages and disadvantages of the most commonly used method of measuring surface finish: Ra
It monitors production and is a very stable and
Failure modes are the ways, or modes, in which something might fail. O-ring failure modes that contribute to equipment failure cost the customer time and money. A premature O-ring failure in service is often due to a combination of root causes and not merely a single failure mode.
The Gallagher Fluid Seals O-Ring Failure Mode Tech Bulletin will discuss the 8 most common types of failure modes for o-ring applications. They are: