Oil and gas production and chemical manufacturing industries present sealing technologies with some of the harshest and most demanding operating environments.
"We screen Kalrez against some of the most aggressive corrosive fluids," says Dr Christopher Bish, Technical Fellow. "And in addition to the fluid testing, we did some compression set testing and stress relaxation testing at high temperatures. We now have one of the most chemically resistant and thermally stable compounds possible."
We screen Kalrez against some of the most aggressive corrosive fluids
One of the things that sets Dupont Kalrez apart is their quality control system, which gives them the ability to track materials as they flow through the plant. Scanning the barcode on the
DuPont™ Kalrez® 7375 FFKM sealing products provide high temperature as well as broad chemical and water/steam resistance properties. Sealing performance, reliability and safety are ensured for applications in the most demanding industrial, chemical and general industrial fields of operation.
These high performance perfluoroelastomer O-ring components are available from Gallagher Fluid Seals, the authorized distributor for a wide range of DuPont™ finished O-rings, as well as custom shapes, sheets and cord sealing components.
The Kalrez® 7375 parts are tailored for specialized chemical applications covering broad operating temperatures from -20°C to 300°C (-4ºF to 572ºF).
These products, which incorporate patented cross-linking technology, combine both superior chemical resistance with a thermal stability which exceeds many other competitive FFKM products. They are also available in most standard O-ring sizes including AS568, metric and JIS, with custom sizes and shapes also available on request.
By switching from gasket seals of PTFE to custom gaskets of DuPont™ Kalrez® perfluoroelastomer parts in the sensor head of a process instrument refractometer used by the food, pulp and paper and chemical industries, process instrument manufacturer K-Patents Oy, Vantaa, Finland, was able to dramatically extend instrument service life, increase reliability and safety, and reduce costs for the company and its customers.
Aggressive environment
Through permanent in-line fluids immersion, K-Patents’ “PR-01-S” refractometer is exposed to temperatures from –20 ° to +220 °C, pressures from –0,7 to +25 bar, and some 500 process fluids and chemicals, many of which are extremely aggressive. Delicate digital detector circuits and fiber optics in the sensor head are sealed by two gaskets from attack by aggressive fluids. Because of inherent inelasticity, the original PTFE gaskets could not withstand the dynamic temperature fluctuations of many food, pulp and paper and chemical manufacturing processes, creating a leak path allowing process media to enter and damage the device. As a result, costly replacement of the PTFE seal became necessary approximately every 6–12 months.
Gallagher Fluid Seals recently posted our new Fluoroelastomer Basics webinar on gallagherseals.com. This is the third and final section of our webinar, focusing on Considerations When Choosing a Fluoroelastomer. The full video is now available on our Resources page.
This video discusses considerations when choosing a fluoroelastomer, including temperature performance range, performance in harsh chemical exposure, and the need to take caution when using fluoroelastomer blends.
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Gallagher Fluid Seals recently posted our new Fluoroelastomer Basics webinar on gallagherseals.com. This is the second section of our webinar, focusing on Fluoroelastomer Materials. The full video is now available on our Resources page.
This section of the video discusses different fluoroelastomer materials, along with their mechanical and physical properties, and in which applications they're normally found.
[embed]https://youtu.be/pukqRYUXtbw[/embed]
Hilge-Pumpen AG, Swiss subsidiary of Philipp-Hilge GmbH, Bodenheim, Germany, selected Kalrez® 6221 perfluoroelastomer parts to seal its Euro-Hygia®, Hygiana-HT and Contra pump series, to meet the stringent safety, cleanliness and sterilization requirements demanded by the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and cosmetics industries.
Pumps used in pharmaceutical, biotechnological and sterile processes are subject to some of the highest standards and safety requirements worldwide. In addition to ease of operation they must also provide maximum biological safety without any unfavorable hydraulic characteristics that could adversely influence sensitive products.
Purity is critical to high wafer yield, and Kalrez® seals are designed with properties that help reduce contamination from particulates, outgassing and extractables.
In a number of fabrication customer evaluations, Kalrez®seals exhibited improved mechanical strength, lower particle generation and longer seal life versus competitive perfluoroelastomers, in both static and dynamic sealing applications.
Operational Improvements
Kalrez® seals can help improve semiconductor manufacturing in a range of wafer-fabricating operations, including:
DuPont Performance Materials (DPM) is a leading innovator of thermoplastics, elastomers, renewable-sources polymers, high-performance parts and shapes, as well as resins that act as adhesives, sealants, and modifiers.
Gallagher Fluid Seals is a long-time partner of DuPont™, predominantly focusing on the Kalrez® line of products which is part of DPM. The latest perfluoroelastomer offering from DPM, Kalrez® Spectrum™ 7275, offers a higher level of sealing performance in the most aggressive chemical processing and manufacturing environments.
Gallagher Fluid Seals is a longtime partner of DuPont®’s, having specified thousands of DuPont perfluoroelastomer parts over the past few decades.
While elastomers were originally created as an alternative to natural rubber, they have expanded to include materials such as high-performance perfluoroelastomers for demanding applications.
These materials can also be used in place of plastics in most, if not all, applications. DuPont is at the forefront of perfluoroelastomer development, creating elastomers with properties that can help meet highly specific application requirements.
Read on to learn more from Dupont about the differences between elastomers and plastics, and how elastomeric seals perform compared to plastic seals.