By: Chett Norton, C.E.T.
When it comes to finding the appropriate gasket material for your system, gasket selection can be one of two things: confusing or intimidating. Some are not sure where to begin, while others find the thought of dangerous leaks or costly shutdowns put them on edge. To help ease the selection process pain, we have developed a few simple tools that will help with gasket selection.
The first, a simple gasket flowchart, will help narrow down which Durlon sealing product is best based on a few simple operating condition guidelines.
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- 1. Critical service can be any factor essential to plant operation or personnel/plant safety and can include environmental compliance. Failure or disruption of any critical service could result in serious impacts such as fines, time loss and/or injuries.
- 2. Durlon Extreme Temperature Gasket Series
*Note: This information is a general guide for the selection of a suitable gasket material. Triangle Fluid Controls does not accept responsibility for the misuse of this information.
How To Select
Gasket Material
No matter the gasket application there are always 3 things that need to be verified:
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Pressure
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Temperature
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Media
Pressure x Temperature
Gaskets are composed of and contain various binders, fillers, materials and metals. Each gasket type or material can have very specific pressure and temperature parameters that affect the performance of the gasket. For compressed non-asbestos and PTFE gasket materials, both temperature and pressure are critical and the result of not verifying these values could result in a leak or possibly a blowout. Generally, as the temperature increases, the material pressure rating decreases for that material. To help identify pressure and temperature limitations of a product, there are Pressure vs. Temperature charts (also known as P x T charts) that will essentially give you a “Yes” or “No” answer when selecting material. When the intersecting point of both the pressure and temperature of your application are inside the material boundary (green area below), it lets you know that material is safe to use for your application.
Media
Media can be verified by simply checking out a chemical resistance chart and verifying whether the material is chemically compatible. Unfortunately, most chemical compatibility charts are based on standard concentrations at room temperature, so you may find some ratings as ‘C’ for caution or ‘N/A’ for unknown. In these cases, contact TFC engineering for further information.
Here’s an easy tool we developed to help identify chemically compatibility (resistance). Click on the image to use the tool.
You should always feel confident that you are using the correct material for installation, but if you are still unsure, I highly recommend speaking with a trained applications engineer. Contact us to learn more about gasket selection from the fluid sealing experts at TFC.
Until next time, keep the fluid between the pipes!