When deciding what kind of seal is best for a given application, it’s best to choose one that will last the longest. It’s impossible to tell exactly how long a seal will last, but knowing what forces wear down seals – and the materials that best stand up to such forces – will ensure that your seals have the longest life possible.

Sometimes it’s possible to extrapolate a general idea of how long a seal might last based on similar applications, although this is only educated speculation. The only way to find out how long a certain seal will last for sure is to put it into a specific application and measure how long it takes for the seals to fail, plus averaging it out over time. The high end of this spectrum tends to be around three years, with some extremely hostile operations being much shorter. Allowing a seal to run until it fails can lead to catastrophic consequences, major failure, and loss of product. It’s imperative to err on the side of caution when it comes to replacing seals.

Shelf life is another story. Most seals have an expected shelf life that can be much more accurate than application life duration estimates. Higher quality seals will degrade much slower over time than cheap knock-offs. Rubbers tend to have a shelf life of around fifteen years. Fluorocarbons and silicone have much longer shelf lives, degrading much slower than any timeline relevant to business.

The most common reasons and forces that act upon seals leading to failure and shorter lifespans are much more readily available and preventable than guessing a given seal’s life span in a certain application.

Initial Failure

If a seal fails much quicker than expected, chances are the wrong seal was chosen. When selecting a seal, it’s imperative that the correct material is chosen. Many of the fluids seals must contain within their systems are corrosive or reactive to certain seal materials, causing the seals to weaken much faster than they should. This is not the only reason for a quick failure. It also me be the wrong shape, size, or design for the application. If a seal is designed for static applications and put into a dynamic operation, it will fail much faster than intended. This is why it is so important to have an expert on seals guide you through the selection process, as these failures can be extremely costly due to the loss of product, damaged machinery, and lost time.

Random Failure

A random failure typically happens when the conditions surrounding a seal change. The most common cause of this failure is a kind of mechanical or procedural failure that precipitates a large amount of strain on the seal. A rapid increase in pressure, temperature, or physical force on the seal could all be a cause. These issues are more of a mechanical problem than a sealing problem; unless these changes are routine and expected, then the seal must be able to withstand both ranges of force.

These types of failures can also be caused by environmental factors. If the place in which the machine is located is exposed to the elements, then a change in seasons or weather can have a large impact on a seal’s ability to withstand the forces acting upon it.

Wear Failure

A seal that degrades over time in a predictable way is the aim of all operations. If a seal has a relatively predictable lifetime, then it can be replaced to prevent failure and there is no loss outside of the small amount of time it takes to change the seal.

Finding the Right Seal

All of this comes down to finding the best seal for your application. Heat, pressure, chemical composition, and other factors all play a role in how long a seal might last, so it’s best to have an expert who knows how to compensate for the myriad forces acting on a seal. Real Seal is an expert in the sealing business and will be able to point you to or design the seal that has the best potential for a long lifespan in your application. Contact Real Seal today to find the right seal for your operations.

When choosing the right sealing device for your operation, it’s imperative to select one made of the right material and designed to prevent the kind of contamination, leakage, or wear that may be present. Gaskets are simply a type of flat mechanical seal which prevents leakage or contamination while simultaneously undergoing compression. Most ideal gaskets are made of deformable materials that can withstand such warping and return to their desired form without too much lasting change. Rubber is a perfect answer for such applications.

Liquid Sealing Gaskets

One of the most common uses for a gasket is to prevent leakage. Liquid sealing gaskets may also be gaskets designed to keep liquid from entering into an unwanted space. A large range of rubbers are impermeable and resistant to different liquids. When deciding the material of the gasket you employ, it’s necessary to account for the chemical properties of the materials your gasket will be coming into contact with. A wrong choice can lead to a broken seal.

These types of gaskets are often found in transformers and other electrical applications where oil, water, or other liquids need to be maintained and not allowed to leak outside or to other parts of the electronic equipment.

Environmental Sealing Gasket

These types of gaskets are mostly used in outdoor applications or in areas with a lot of debris and possibility for contamination. Environmental sealing gaskets often protect against dust, sand, rain, and other external dangers. These kinds of gaskets can often be found in outdoor operations.

Anti-Friction and Vibration Gaskets

Gaskets not only keep material in or out of an operation, but they can also be a vital piece of physical protection for machinery. In applications with a large amount of vibration or friction, a gasket serves as a sort of buffer between the two moving parts, taking the brunt of the force and diverting it away from the fragile and expensive machines. These gaskets must be able to retain their shape after being deformed, making rubber gaskets a good choice in the right applications.

Types of Rubber

As previously stated, the type of rubber can be just as important as the design of the gasket. There is a massive array of rubber and the kinds of applications they can be used in. Each material type has its advantages and disadvantages with one being right for most operations and the unique stresses that the application will put on the seal.

• Nitrile rubber is perhaps the most commonly used type of rubber in the sealing industry. It’s durable and won’t easily crack. The standard temperature range is -25F to 250F, but these ranges can be extended based on the grade of the rubber.
• Polyurethan rubber is one of the most durable forms of rubber, able to withstand a large amount of wear without the integrity of the seal suffering. The temperature range of polyurethane is higher and lower than nitrile. This type of rubber is also resistant to a range of chemicals including: petroleum oils, fuels, oxygen, and ozone.
• Silicon rubber gaskets are great for extreme temperature applications with a range of -175F to 500F based on the compounding of the rubber. Silicon is rubber resistant, which is frequently a much sought after property. The downside is that it isn’t as resilient against physical damage due to friction or tearing.

This is far and away not a complete list of possible rubber materials used in gaskets, so if the properties don’t seem to fit your needs there is a rubber out there for your operation. Nearly any kind of application can use a rubber gasket that calls for this kind of seal design.

Selecting the Right Gasket

Perhaps one of the most important steps in selecting a gasket is consulting an expert that can guide you to the right material. The wrong gasket seal can lead to a catastrophic failure leading to lost money and time, as well as causing safety concerns. Consulting the experts at Real Seal will make this process stress-free and you can ensure that your application is being properly sealed. Contact Real Seal today for all your rubber gasket needs.

Whether you’re prototyping, producing, or mass producing, tooling is one of the most important steps in setting up your manufacturing operation. Tooling is simply the process by which manufacturers obtain the components their machines need in order to operate and produce their desired end product. The ways that tooling impacts a manufacturing operation are numerous and far-reaching. Not only is the tooling of your own manufacturing important, but also of the tools themselves that will be a part of your own operation. It’s necessary to have components that have been tooled to specifications, have high quality, and will perform under stress.

Potential Effects of Tooling

The end result of your operation’s tooling is going to affect every aspect of the business and its success. If an operation has been improperly tooled, then it will inevitably have a less efficient running cost, slowing things down. When an improperly tooled machine fails, it can have disastrous consequences, not limited to time lost, loss of product, and potential hazard to employees or customers.

When an operation has been tooled correctly it will work at maximum efficiency, but that isn’t the only benefit. Any manufacturing that has the best components will have a superior product. Contamination and imperfections will occur in manufacturing businesses that haven’t properly tooled their machines. The components that affect the process don’t just include the more prominent parts of the machine that do the most work towards creating the end part. For example: seals have a massive impact on the efficiency and safety of an operation. Preventing both contamination and loss of product, seals play an integral role in nearly all manufacturing machine tooling.

Tooling Methods

One of the most important aspects of tooling is how these components are themselves created and designed. Tooling can be extremely expensive in the early stages of prototyping if you are doing the process entirely from scratch. Luckily, manufacturers of components such as Real Seal have adapted to the needs of today’s market with new tooling methods based upon altering existing molds to fit the needs of new applications.

One such method is injection molding which takes molds usually made of metal and injects the material that a component will consist of. Using inserts in these already designed molds allows for customization for the needs of a specific application. So, instead of having to create an entirely new mold, which can be cost prohibitive and crippling to smaller startups, an existing mold is adjusted to work for a new manufacturing operation.

Compression/Transfer molding is another process by which tooling is done. In this method liquid is forced from a “pot” that holds the correct amount of material for a mold into said mold. This process is designed for the economics of prototyping and allows for adjusting until the final design is reached.

When cost is an issue then it’s vital to consider cost when deciding how to tool a manufacturing operation. A smaller, more nimble company such as Real Seal will be able to adjust to the demands of more specific operations than large scale mass producers of component. Plus, once you need to scale up, they have that capacity as well.

Use an Expert

The long term consequences of tooling for manufacturing operations demands that your tooling is done correctly and efficiently. When an operation is improperly tooled, it will lose money through a variety of avenues. Consulting an expert in tooling is one of the smartest decisions to be made when tooling a manufacturing operation. Contact Real Seal today to ensure that your machines are tooled properly and economically.

Any manufacturing operation that moves product through some kind of tubing requires a seal. With so many variables in each operation, sometimes it seems that no individual seal will fit the wide range of requirements; that’s where specialty custom seals come in. Real Seal has expertise in creating unique solutions for equally unique problems, ensuring quality operations and results. Specialty seals are designed to meet different engineering challenges with unique shapes and design.

X-Rings

Standard o-rings have a circular cross section, creating a large mating surface. In some operations with low speed oscillation or reciprocation the basic o-ring may twist, which can cause leakage and damage to the ring as well as the surfaces it is mated to.

When pressure is exerted upon the x-ring, four contact points are made due to the x-shaped profile. Because of the x-ring’s design, it requires less compression to seal the surfaces it is attached to. Another advantage is that the seam of the x-ring is between its mating surfaces; some o-rings may have leakage problems in this parting section, but with x-rings this problem is virtually eliminated.

Most commonly used in reciprocating applications, x-rings have reduced friction and have a better durability and anchoring for this kind of motion. In some rotational settings a normal o-ring will also experience warping, x-rings are recommended for these applications, as well. To ensure quality operations in reciprocating and rotational operations use these kinds of specialty rings.

Square Rings

Originally, square rings were designed as a cheaper alternative to o-rings, but as the cost of o-rings has fallen square rings have been out-competed in dynamic operations. Square rings do still have their place in static operations or in places where costs must be kept to an absolute minimum. Static sealing with a square ring is perhaps the most effective when a high load force is required. Square rings are not recommended for operations with movement, as they are more prone to failure. So, in high load static operations specialty square rings will make sure that your operation is producing top quality.

Back-up Rings

Back-up rings aren’t used all on their own, but in conjunction with other seals, usually o-rings, to prevent extrusion and leakage. In high pressure applications a more rigid back-up ring is used to hold the o-ring in place while allowing it to continue to do its job of preventing leakage. Some back-up rings can also increase the temperature resistance for the o-ring, as well as friction resistance. Back-up rings are extremely important because they allow for more solutions in an application having issues with o-ring failure without having to retool the entire machine to compensate. Most back-up rings are designed to fit standard o-ring sizes, but more specialized back-up rings can be used for other kinds of sealers than o-rings, too. If your operation is suffering due to extrusion or leakage, a back-up ring can increase the quality and durability of your seal.

U-Rings and V-Rings

U-rings and V-rings are similar to o-rings in design, but have a U or V shaped groove in the counter-face of the ring. These rings have reduced wear and friction due to their unique shape, plus they can fit in some uniquely shaped joints that require a nonstandard sealing shape. Due to the groove in the ring some of these rings are also designed to reduce contamination and leakage.

O-Ring and Specialty Ring Experts

No matter what kind of application, Real Seal will have the expertise to point you in the direction of the correct type of sealing ring. Their twenty plus years of experience has given them the experience they need to make sure your operation is running at the highest quality and safety. They can make recommendations based on your needs and even design specialty custom rings if the operation calls for it. Contact Real Seal today!