There are many aged and aging process plants in operation today. In fact, many of the processing plants for power, chemicals, oil, etc., have been in service for more than 50 years. And while the piping itself may remain intact, their bolted flange gasket joints and connections are becoming misaligned, corroded and damaged due to repeated handling, chemical exposure and thermal cycling. This can lead to costly ruptures that may result in millions of dollars in damages, downtime, noncompliance penalties, irreparable environmental impact and litigation.
There is a solution that can extend the life of aging piping systems, preserving their functionality: raising the surface profile on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) gaskets. This design modification can prevent leaks, spills and other releases in chemical processing plants by reducing and managing
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
GYLON EPIX® is a family of gaskets that effectively seals a broader range of applications and is more forgiving during the installation process. It allows the end user to save valuable turn-around time, reduce re-work, and lower costs, helping them to finish ahead of schedule and under budget.
GYLON EPIX® features a hexagonal surface profile that provides the torque retention and blowout resistance of a thin gasket and the conformability of a thicker gasket. GYLON EPIX Style 3504 is a high performance, aluminosilicate microsphere filled PTFE sheet material designed for use in moderate concentrations of acids, and caustics, as well as hydrocarbons, refrigerants, and more.
Chemical
Chemical Manufacturer and Distributor
Loading stations are very critical in the chemical industry as flanges are disassembled and reassembled everyday.
Gaskets are ubiquitous components in a processing plant. Every flange, equipment joint and connection point will have some form of gasket to prevent fluids from compromising (i.e., leaking from) a process system. However, effective sealing can pose challenges. A new form of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) gasket, Gylon Epix, already has successfully addressed a number of persistent problems at plants.
The gasket, which is available in 3⁄32-in.-thick, 60-in. × 60-in. sheets, features a raised hexagonal pattern (Figure 1). It exhibits
The search for the ideal Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) gasket has been elusive. Competing applications and workplace variables have led to the creation of myriad solutions, yet none that has proven fully adaptable and appropriate for universal adoption.
Garlock Sealing Technologies considered this to be a critical yet entirely solvable shortcoming. And it is against this backdrop that in 2016, they set out to compile a comprehensive list of attributes for the ideal PTFE gasket — a wish list, as it were — in order to build a better gasket.
Working with a third-party survey development company, Garlock developed an exhaustive questionnaire that probed every aspect and functionality of PTFE gaskets, testing and adjusting the questions until they had a workable, finalized version.
Using this final questionnaire, Garlock conducted extensive interviews at 15 major chemical processor companies, speaking with 20 engineers responsible for process operations, projects, maintenance and reliability. The goal was simple: to discover the ideal characteristics and their relative importance that engineers sought in a PTFE gasket.
After several months of data collection, Garlock analyzed the feedback and noted the most popular responses:
From those answers, Garlock drew the following conclusions, representing the most desirable and essential PTFE gasket characteristics:
Garlock used this feedback in developing a next generation PTFE gasket — GYLON EPIX. Featuring a hexagonal surface profile, GYLON EPIX offers superior compressibility and sealing for use in chemical processing environments. Its enhanced surface profile performs as well or better than existing 1/16″ or 1/8″ gaskets, allowing end-users and distributors to consolidate inventory, lower the risk of using incorrect gasket thicknesses and reduce stocking costs.
GYLON EPIX checks off the most desirable gasket attributes:
GYLON EPIX with its raised, hexagonal profile allows it to perform the job of both traditional 1/16” and 1/8” gaskets. It accomplishes this by combining the bolt retention of the former with the forgiveness for bad flange conditions of the latter, a truly innovative feature for PTFE sheet gasketing.
HDPE piping joints are typically thermal fusion welded joints, but flanges may also be used. When flanges are used, an HDPE flange adapter with a metal backing ring is fused to HDPE piping, as shown in Figure 1. The HDPE flange adapters are used to connect to other flanged fittings, such as valves, elbows, tees, etc., with gaskets inserted between the flanged fittings.
In 2018, two HDPE flange adapter gaskets on two different valves that were part of an underground fire suppression system at a Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear facility in Amarillo, TX failed, causing several weeks of unplanned interruptions to nuclear
The GYLON Style 3504 gasket is made of PTFE with aluminosilicate microspheres. It is designed for use in moderate concentrations of acids, caustics, hydrocarbons, refrigerants, and more.
It provides a tight seal, improved performance over conventional PTFE, reduced product loss and emissions, reduced creep relaxtion, excellent bolt torque retention, it doesn't burn, will not support bacterial growth, plus many more benefits.
Food Processing – Fried Snack Foods
A major diversified food & beverage manufacturer, with facilities located in all regions across the globe.
The customer had persistent problems when sealing hot oil applications on its bulk snack food fryers across several production sites. Build-up of polymerised vegetable oil on the flanges caused unsightly mess, maintenance complications, financial implications, and posed a significant fire risk.
As well as ensuring that the sealing material was compliant to FDA and EN1935 standards, the challenge was to ensure that the gaskets would perform well under the difficult conditions presented by the high oil temperatures. Additionally, because the production line was also subject to regular and aggressive cleaning cycles, the gasket material was required to be compatible with other aggressive chemicals across a broad pH range.
We recently added the GYLON EPIX™ - The Next Generation in PTFE Gasketing webinar to our website. The webinar discusses Garlock's revolutionary new gasketing material, with its patented hexagonal surface, which concentrates gasket stress, providing improved compressibility and bolt load retention, improving sealability and blowout resistance.
Below is the third and final section of the webinar, which provides application guidance for GYLON EPIX™, calling out where it makes most sense to utilize this revolutionary new material.
https://youtu.be/U-koqMPko0w
We recently added the GYLON EPIX™ - The Next Generation in PTFE Gasketing webinar to our website. The webinar discusses Garlock's revolutionary new gasketing material, with its patented hexagonal surface, which concentrates gasket stress, providing improved compressibility and bolt load retention, improving sealability and blowout resistance.
Below is the second section of the webinar, which discusses the features and benefits of the GYLON EPIX™ material, and what differentiates it from any other gasketing material on the market today.
https://youtu.be/WzooJzGNa8w
We recently added the GYLON EPIX™ - The Next Generation in PTFE Gasketing webinar to our website. The webinar discusses Garlock's revolutionary new gasketing material. With its patented hexagonal surface, GYLON EPIX™ concentrates gasket stress, providing improved compressibility and bolt load retention, improving sealability and blowout resistance.
Below is the first section of the webinar, diving into what drove Garlock to create this new material, and how GYLON EPIX™ provides the benefits of both a 1/16" and 1/18" thick gasket in one, universal, 3/32" thickness.
https://youtu.be/PS_uc5BUDwc