gasketing
- August 18, 2023
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
- July 19, 2023
What is Die Cutting? The Benefits of Flat Bed Die Cutting
Die cutting is an all-inclusive term for the process of using a die to cut sheets or rolls of a variety of materials, such as foils, laminates, gasket materials, polyesters, polycarbonates, and more.
- July 12, 2023
What is a tanged gasket?
Tanged gaskets are metal (typically carbon steel or stainless steel) punctured through a perforating process and combined with facing materials (commonly fibers, graphites, and other high-temperature materials). They are usually 3 layers, and the “fingers” or “tangs” in the punctured metal are attached to the facing through a combining process creating a mechanical bond. Oftentimes, no adhesive is required.
Applications for Tang gaskets
Gaskets with tanged inserts are typically found in high-temperature and high-pressure seal points. The tanged insert provides radial strength which helps to prevent blowouts. These gaskets are often used in exhaust, head gaskets, intake manifolds, turbochargers, EGRs, catalytic converters, etc. Generally, the mechanically bonded materials are perfectly suited for exhaust environments and remove the concern that an adhesively
- June 02, 2023
GYLON EPIX™
GYLON EPIX™ is a newly developed family of PTFE gaskets. It is manufactured using a patented, profiled surface based on Garlock's proven Fawn, Off-White, and Blue GYLON® to create highly conformable materials for optimum sealing performance.
GYLON EPIX™ provides superior functional performance by combining the traditional attributes of GYLON® with an innovative surface design. It offers a broader range of applications than traditional PTFE gaskets that are used in worn and pitted flanges. In addition, this evolutionary material
- May 18, 2023
The Best Gasket Types for Increased Heat
Under pressure? Absolutely. The increasingly high temperatures and harsh conditions to which gaskets are exposed makes selecting the right gasket all the more important.
In industries such as chemical processing, hydrocarbon refining, and power generation, leakage from extreme temperature process streams can result in loss of efficiency and production as well as adverse environmental impacts and compromised employee safety. One of the most commonly used sealing products in systems subject to high pressures and temperatures is a spiral-wound gasket. These gaskets typically consist of filler and winding materials selected on the basis of application requirements and end-user preference. Proper selection of these materials is critical to achieving the desired performance in all applications.
Material Selection for High Temperature Gasketing
Sealing at temperatures above 850 ºF (454 ºC) is particularly challenging because of the limited number of filler materials that can resist thermal degradation at extreme temperatures – these temperatures affect both the sealing material and metal components. For instance, the yield strength of fasteners decreases as the temperature is increased. In addition certain chemicals can become more volatile and aggressive in high-temperature reaction processes.
The two most common filler materials in spiral-wound gaskets are graphite (can withstand temperatures up to 850 ºF) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE; tolerance up to 500 ºF). Other filler materials are used mainly for their thermal insulating properties, not for sealability; these include mica, exfoliated mica, and ceramics. While graphite and PTFE perform satisfactorily in terms of temperature and chemical resistance, they have limitations. Graphite is not compatible with heavily oxidizing media at any temperature, nor can it withstand continuous operating temperatures above 850 ºF. Beyond 850 ºF, volume loss through oxidation becomes excessive and sealing effectiveness is compromised.
Many high-temperature systems, such as exhaust manifolds and flanged piping connections in exhaust systems, are oxidizing. Other services are oxidizing because of the operating temperature and media involved.
- May 12, 2023
Video - What is a Flash Cutter? The 411 on Flash Cutters for Gaskets and Seals
The purpose of this 2-minute video is to provide the definition of a flash cutter, what makes them ideal for custom, or standard gasket shapes, and the capabilities of Gallagher Fluid Seals.
0:13 What is a flash cutter?
- May 05, 2023
KLINGERSIL The Original Green Gasket
KLINGERSIL gasketing materials are hard to beat. A proven track record makes them one of the premier gasketing companies in the United States. Because of this, some competitors have cleverly posed their compressed gasket materials as KLINGERSIL green (C-4401).
However, their offerings aren't equal in terms of quality, performance, or specification. And just because it's green doesn't mean it's KLINGERSIL. To ensure you're getting what you want and need in your compressed gasket materials, whether green, gray, tan, black, or white, look for the KLINGERSIL logo repetitively printed on the sheet.
- April 14, 2023
Lubricating Bolts for Your Gaskets
Our friends and partners at KLINGER Thermoseal recently did a survey with their customer base.
- 90% of their customers NEVER lubricate
- 10% of their customers lubricate sometimes
- 0% of the respondents indicated they ALWAYS lubricate.
Relationship between friction coefficient and gasket surface pressure
So, what's the effect of lubricating your bolts? This blog explores the relationship between the friction coefficient and gasket surface pressure.
Without lubrication, after torqueing, the force is distributed as follows:
- ± 15% effectively used as bolt force
- ± 45% loss of friction at nut surface
- ± 40% loss of friction at thread
These figures are indicative. Factors such as actual surface roughness and bolt diameter help in determining the actual ratio.
- March 24, 2023
Gore Joint Sealant and Gore Gasket Tape Series 500
Created more than 40 years ago, Gore Joint Sealant was the first form-in-place gasket. It was and still is a great sealing solution for steel flanges with large diameters, irregular shapes, or rough/pitted surfaces. It forms a thin yet strong seal when compressed and works in applications where bolt loads are low.
With a reliable, easy install and being a cost-effective sealing method, it's become standard seal for MRO applications all over the world. Installing it is very easy, too: Simply peel off the adhesive backing, apply it to the
- March 07, 2023
High-temperature chemical processing applications require new approaches to valve-stem packing.