By: Viraj Shah

There are five criteria when it comes to rubber seals for various industry needs, and it’s important to find the rubber seals that meet these criteria. So, before buying rubber seals for your company, ask yourself these five questions:

What’s the Medium?

Your seal needs to be able to withstand coming into contact with different things, such as volatile liquids and gasses, some of which might be corrosive, and solids. The solids could be of any material. So, depending on your situation, you’ll need to pick rubber seals that are designed for the relevant media. So, if your process involves sulfuric acid, magnesium, and chlorine, then the rubber seals you choose would have to be able to withstand all three of them at the same time.

What’s the Applicable Temperature?

The rubber seals have to retain their integrity at any relevant temperature during your process. In addition to being able to withstand extreme cold, extreme heat, or both, in some processes, the rubber seals also have to be able to take drastic and sudden temperature changes. An easy example would be a seal that would pass through both boiling water in one part of the process and a room with dry ice immediately thereafter.

What’s the Pressure Going to Be?

Processes don’t all operate at the same atmospheric pressure. Some require multiple atmospheres while others need to take place in a near vacuum. Similar to the temperature criteria of the rubber seals in question, they’ll have to withstand great pressure, no pressure, and oftentimes, rapid changes between the two extremes. For example, chemical vapor deposition takes place at very high temperatures, often up to 800 F. These processes are also quite low-pressure. Other processes could be high-pressure, quite cold, or both.

What’s the Projected Required Lifespan of the Rubber Seals?

Many times, the rubber seals have to last for many years. Other times, they might only need to last for one or two iterations of the process. There are, quite literally, hundreds of chemical and other manufacturing processes for which you will need rubber seals. Quite a number of them will have different requirements for the longevity of the rubber seals associated with them.

What’s the Right Size?

The rubber seals you choose have to fit the pieces of equipment upon which you’re going to use them. If they don’t fit, then they won’t seal correctly, which could lead to disaster for the machinery, the operator or operators, or both. Therefore, it’s crucial to pick the right size.

You have to adhere to all these criteria when selecting rubber seals. Even if one or more of the criteria wind up not being relevant, you still have to check your process’s needs to be able to determine if those particular criteria fit or not. More often than not, however, you will have to pick rubber seals that fit all five criteria to be just right for the job. The best thing to do is to speak with an expert regarding the kind of rubber seals you need.

Published By: Aize Perez