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
Gallagher Fluid Seals is a Garlock master distributor. At our facility in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, we stock a variety of Garlock packing materials in a number of sizes.
We can provide our customers full spools of packing material, or customized packing sets cut to size and engineered specifically for their application.
The Garlock compression packing facility is committed to supplying the highest quality engineered products to industries throughout the world. It is designed to give the user the greatest return on initial investment in terms of leakage control, service life, and dependable, cost-effective product.
The facility also houses the Garlock textile division, where they continue to research and develop new fiber blends to bring customers a wide array of packings with optimum performance characteristics.
Not all carbon fiber packings are created equal. The two attributes that differentiate
Modern technology often requires rare or ultra-pure materials that can only be handled or obtained within extreme environmental conditions. These same conditions present unique and hazardous difficulties when transporting or utilizing these resources. Resources such as liquid oxygen, nitrogen, or argon; all of which are classified as “industrial gases” are handled well below the normal temperature ranges that every-day liquids exist; ranging as low as -195.8°C (-320.4°F). This often makes it a challenging task to find a low temp gasket to fit the specifications for the application.
As an example, let’s look at argon; an important gas used in Welding, Neon Lights, 3D Printing, and Metal Production, just to name a few. It is far more economical to house and transport argon in its liquid state. However, it must be held at an astonishingly low -185.9°C. Fitting the pipes together and maintaining
The GYLON® Style 3522 material is made of 100% pure PTFE with no fillers or additives, making the material ideal for the most demanding, high purity requirements. Industries such as food, pharmaceutical, semi-conductor, recognize the uniformity of GYLON® 3522 that makes it an ideal gasket choice for those critical applications that cannot risk process contamination or premature failure.
Food and Beverage
Large Global Valve Company
SIP (steam in place) at temperatures of 300°F (148°C) and 145 psi, in contact with cleaning agents, steam and the primary media which is dairy related products.
During an initial expansion joint Preventative Maintenance and Reliability (PMR) Service performed at the paper mill, it was determined that several competitor joints required replacement. These pipelines carry water, pulp, black/white liquor, bleach, and CIO2.
Though recommended for replacement on the Garlock Preventative Maintenance and Reliability (PMR) report, the mill postponed purchase. To date, four of those items flagged for replacement have failed - with the most recent failure resulting in an administration building filling with 4 feet of pulp.
This blog will discuss the differences between ASME flanges and AWWA flanges and the gaskets associated with each.
ASME flanges are the most widely used and specified flanges throughout industry in North America. Flange sizes ½” through 24” fall under ASME B16.5 and flange sizes 26” through 60” fall under ASME B16.47. Within ASME B16.47 there are series A and series B flanges, with the noticeable differences in most cases being the bolt size and/or bolt quantity.
Garlock Style 215 Expansion Joints are PTFE concentric spool-type flexible couplings that are designed to reduce noise and compensate for expansion, contraction, and minor piping misalignment in chemical processing, air conditioning, and heating systems.
The complete assembly includes a fluorocarbon resin PTFE body, electroless nickle-plated ductile iron flanges, polyethylene-covered restriction zinc plated bolts, and stainless steel corrosion-resistant reinforcing rings.
Primary Metals
South American manufacturer of flat and long steel products
Construction of two new facilities including a hot rolling mill.
The plant was in need of expansion joints that could handle chemicals on their pickling lines. Pickling is a metal surface treatment used to remove impurities, such as stains, inorganic contaminants, rust or scale from ferrous metals. A solution called pickle liquor, which contains strong acids, is used to remove the surface impurities. It is commonly used to clean steel in various steel making processes. The line required an expansion joint with a PTFE tube to handle the pickle liquor which included hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, but a very short overall length for installation.
The Garlock Family of Companies has launched a new fully-coated isolation gasket known as EVOLUTION.
The next generation of isolation gaskets, EVOLUTION®, features easier installation, tight sealing, high-temperature operation, no permeation, hydrotesting isolation, fire-safety and chemical-resistance.
Featuring a thinner, 1/8-inch design, EVOLUTION minimizes the difficulties encountered when attempting to install thicker isolating gaskets. The full-coating encapsulation allows the gasket to be hydrotested and left in the pipeline with the same isolation properties as before it was tested.
EVOLUTION's coating is highly resistant to abrasion and impact while providing chemical resistance to hydrogen sulphide (H2S), steam, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and other chemicals often found in oil and gas pipelines. This fully encapsulated coating also prevents the need for expensive exotic cores, as it eliminates contact to exposed metal.
Bolted flange-gasket connections in process piping systems are common and given little thought – unless they start to leak.
Chronic leakage proved to be an issue for one of Garlock's clients, a midstream oil and gas processor and services provider. The site processes, stores, and transports natural gas, liquefied natural gas and petroleum products. Garlock was brought in to provide a solution to the problem.
Successful connections are dependent on a variety of things, including the state of the flange surfaces, alignment, bolt and nut grade and strength, bolt and nut thread condition, lubrication, bolt tightening process, service conditions, and choice of gasket.
When a flange-gasket joint is assembled, the gasket must first be compressed to fill the gaps between the flange surfaces, creating a seal when system pressure is applied. Secondly, it must maintain that seal as the system is brought on-line and temperature and pressure escalate.
As the temperature increases, a gasket made of non-metallic materials such as rubber, fibre, PTFE and inorganic fillers is prone to lose thickness, that is, creep. And the thicker the gasket is, the
more it is prone to creep (1/8-inch thick gaskets creep more than 1/16-inch).
The two most important performance qualities of a gasket are its ability to seal and its ability maintain that seal. These can be indicated by industry standard tests for sealability and creep.
On the surface, this particular case study would seem to be an application of little complexity. However, the details of the joint gave rise to several issues that caused the user chronic leakage problems. Here are the service conditions and background of this particular case:
In a brine concentrator, an original competitor’s expansion joint failed upon start up.
Water Treatment
This facility is a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) power plant. Water is initially pumped from a well, pre-treated, used as process water, then reclaimed and retreated with a Brine Concentrator for use in their cooling towers. No city water is used and no waste water is disposed of from the site.
Brine concentrators use thermal energy to evaporate water, which is subsequently condensed and discharged as clean distilled water.
Brine Concentrators are also used in water treatment facilities in desalination plants, mining operations and well drilling operations in the oil & gas industry.
The original expansion