parker hannifin
- August 14, 2018
Article re-posted with permission from Parker Hannifin Sealing & Shielding Team.
Original content can be found on Parker’s Blog.
A Guide to Proper Storage and Cleaning of Elastomer Seals
Elastomer seals from Parker Prädifa meet the most exacting demands in a wide range of applications. Aside from the appropriate seal designs, the material properties of the seal compounds are crucial to ensuring that seals deliver the desired performance.
A key criterion for the storage period of elastomers is the time at which the product was vulcanized. Parker indicates the date of manufacture on the packaging bags: “1Qxx” stands for parts produced in the first quarter of the year 20xx. The recommended maximum storage period depends on the type of elastomer.
- May 31, 2018
Article re-posted with permission from Parker Hannifin Sealing & Shielding Team.
Original content can be found on Parker’s Blog.
TetraSeal: An Alternate Sealing Solution When an O-Ring Isn't Working
Our applications engineering team takes more than a few calls each month where the O-ring is leaking, either immediately or after just a short time in service. Once we drill down to the details, we learn the failure mode is an improperly sized groove and O-ring. It isn’t all that uncommon for a groove to be cut in a flange and a novice designer learns the hard way that standard O-rings cannot fit in just any groove geometry. For hardware that has already been machined, frustration ensues as the caller learns the O-ring solution requires tooling. Tooling can have a lead time of at least a month to cut and can cost thousands of dollars. Parker offers a TetraSeal® solution, which often does not require tooling and can be made of many of the same materials used for O-rings.
Benefits of TetraSeals
The TetraSeal is a circular precision-cut seal with a square cross-section. Unlike O-rings which require a unique mold for each material family and size, TetraSeals are extruded, cured and machine cut to the target thickness. Our manufacturing facilities in both Spartanburg, South Carolina and Goshen, Indiana are tooled in a variety of interchangeable extrusion dies, making this type of seal an easily sourced seal solution without the lead time and cost of a custom molded O-ring.
- May 10, 2018
Poppet Seals for Demand Flow Regulators
Avoid Leakage and Support a More Accurate System
There are many applications in industrial settings where fluid must be sealed and released in calibrated quantities. Some examples include pressure regulators, relief values, fuel nozzles, or gas metering. Specifically a demand flow regulator is designed for use with various industrial instruments and uses a pump to draw the calibration of gas. It is crucial that there is no leakage of the fluid for the system to operate properly.Parker Composite Sealing Systems Division designs different poppets to help control leakage in flow control applications. Our poppet is used to help keep the demand flow regulators in the “closed” position. And when the user “demands” gas flow, a diaphragm pushes down on the seat stem of the Poppet to help monitor the flow of gas.
- January 30, 2018
Article re-posted with permission from Parker Hannifin Sealing & Shielding Team.
Original content can be found on Parker’s Blog.One of the decisions equipment designers need to make when installing O-ring seals in their applications is how much the O-ring will be squeezed by its mating hardware to create an effective seal.
What is O-ring squeeze
Squeeze is a ratio of the amount of deformation applied to the seal expressed as a percentage of the free-state cross-sectional thickness. Deforming the seal cross-section “energizes” the elastomer matrix much like compressing a spring; the inherent elasticity of the rubber material causes it to push back against the mating components. This contact force blocks the passage of liquids, gases and dry powders, preventing them from flowing between the rubber seal and the mating hardware.
The greater the squeeze, the more force is applied against the hardware and the tighter the seal. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that designers should always specify the most squeeze (assuming they knew what that level was or why it was “the most”). There are a number of factors to consider, which include:
- January 23, 2018
O-Rings continue to be the most widely utilized sealing product. While the ‘Donut’ shaped profile has by and large been kept intact since their inception, continued elastomeric development has pushed o-ring temperature and chemical compatibility to limits unimaginable several decades ago.
Typically, O-Rings fail due to adverse effects of a number of factors, from improper installation and lubrication to incorrect size and design. The collection of videos below will help you minimize installation errors that may lead to failure (be sure to bookmark this page for future reference).
How To Install an O-Ring - Standard Male Gland
[embed]https://youtu.be/QcJBVQvTvhw[/embed]
- January 09, 2018
Article re-posted with permission from Parker Hannifin Sealing & Shielding Team.
Original content can be found on Parker’s Blog.
Precision O-rings are manufactured by vulcanization in a closed mold using compression or injection molding. This makes it possible to produce O-rings in relatively small manufacturing tolerances and with good surface quality according to ISO 3601-1 and ISO 3601-3. Due to defined vulcanization parameters, precision O-rings
- November 16, 2017
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAG0ymNGaHE[/embed]
Lubrication of O-rings is extremely important. The greatest benefit of using a lubricant is typically obtained during installation.
Using a lubricant is going to decrease the surface friction of the O-ring helping to prevent abrasion, pinching or cutting of the O-ring during installation. Lubricating an O-ring can also help to seat the O-ring properly into the application, as well as aid and speed up automated assembly processes.
The proper method of applying a lubricant to an O-ring always seems to be an area of concern for many of our customers and there are many methods used in the marketplace. One is to apply the lubricant to the O-ring using your fingers, your hand or a brush. Another is
- November 02, 2017
Article re-posted with permission from Parker Hannifin Sealing & Shielding Team.
Original content can be found on Parker’s Blog.
Protect Your Seal Aftermarket with Part Identification Technologies
Parker is revolutionizing part identification technology with a multitude of options. Customers are able to benefit from various identification methods such as non-permanent and permanent part markings by selecting their part number and company logo on the seal. For more advanced identification, a customer may opt to use the Parker Tracking System or utilize our RFID seals for tracking purposes. These identification methods ensure product authenticity and reduce seal installation errors by providing visual indicators for the assembly process.
Basic part marking – non-permanent identification
Non-permanent markings are applied to the surface of the seal and can be in the form of a company logo, unique part number, barcode, or other seal information. Non-permanent markings ensure Parker’s part origin, enables part level traceability and provides an easily visible cue to operators. This value-added feature helps reduce installation errors in addition to protecting customers against counterfeit seals.
- October 19, 2017
Article re-posted with permission from Parker Hannifin Sealing & Shielding Team.
Original content can be found on Parker’s Blog.
New Sealing Material HiFluor® FB for Hygienically Sensitive Applications
Be it in the production of food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics or medical devices coming into contact with the human body, excellent purity and media resistance combined with a wide range of robust properties is always required of the materials used for the components in the manufacturing processes. Specifically for these challenging applications, Parker has developed a new sealing compound with very good mechanical properties and excellent permanent elasticity: HiFluor® FB V8991.
Fluoroelastomeric materials have proven their viability in chemical and food processing, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and life science applications involving non-polar solvents, aliphatic compounds, greases, oils and aromatic substances whenever the resistance of standard materials such as hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR) and ethylene propylene rubber (EPDM) is no longer sufficient.
Innovative “Pure” Sealing Solution HiFluor® FB V8991
As a compound and seal manufacturer, Parker Prädifa, in the light of the growing demands made on sealing elements in the aforementioned markets, has developed a HiFluor® FB compound with very good mechanical properties and excellent permanent elasticity.
- September 07, 2017
Article re-posted with permission from Parker Hannifin Sealing & Shielding Team.
Original content can be found on Parker’s Blog.
4 Most Common Rubber Test Report Misunderstandings
We've all done it at least once: looked at a rubber test report, read the numbers on it, and come up with exactly the wrong conclusion. Pass / fail limits and results are printed right there, but for some reason, our brain just misinterprets the two. It's a passing value, but for some reason, we think it shows a failure instead. Imagine a police officer writing a speeding ticket for driving 53 MPH on a road with a 55 MPH speed limit.
It's not a problem with the test itself, it's a problem of interpretation. That means the old carpenter's adage, "measure once, cut twice; measure twice, cut once" doesn't address the issue. The same issue of misunderstanding the values on a test report occurs in the rubber seal industry about once a month. Passing results are misinterpreted to be failing results, and good values are thought to be bad ones. Here are four of the most common rubber test report misunderstandings I've run into.