January 31, &#; by Eastern Seals
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The importance of choosing O-rings in sealing applications cannot be emphasised enough. Ask any O-ring supplier across the UK and you will know that choosing the right O-ring is integral to engineering.
In this post, we look at some key factors to consider when choosing O-rings.
Material
O-rings are manufactured from different materials including rubber, thermoplastic and polyethylene. If the materials in the application are incompatible with the O-ring material, it can degrade.
The O-ring may swell if the wrong compound causes fluids to build up. The easiest solution is to choose a material that does not corrode during the application.
Pressure
O-rings are generally designed to hold pressures of up to psi. However, it&#;s important to know the amount of pressure the O-ring will be subjected to during the application. This can have a direct impact on the choice of hardware geometry, durometer and elastomer type.
Some compounds have been designed specifically to handle extremely high pressure, extremely low pressure and rapid change in pressure. When choosing an O-ring for your application, be sure to check it can handle the pressure you want to subject it to. This will help prevent leaks.
Temperature
With the improvement in chemical processes and efficiency of products like engines and electronics, there has been an overall rise in operating temperatures that O-rings are subjected to. The need to operate these devices in excessively cold environments has also gone up.
Different O-ring materials have been specifically designed to work across an array of temperature ranges. Identifying the temperature range of the prospective application will help you choose the right O-ring.
Size
O-rings are available in an array of sizes. In fact, there are more than 400 sizes in standard AS568A inch measure and many more in metric sizes.
Using a standard O-ring size for your application can help save a lot of time and money on customisation, tooling, lead time and more.
Load
When it comes to choosing O-rings, the load is usually ignored. For the perfect seal, an O-ring must compress into the seal groove. The O-ring should efficiently push across both sides of the groove, just like a spring does when decompressed.
The compression rate of O-rings varies between 19% to 30%. This deformation is measured using a durometer. Low pressure applications will typically need lower durometer compounds whereas higher pressure applications will need higher durometer compounds.
Contact Eastern Seals for Quality O-rings
If you are looking for high-quality o-rings, contact Eastern Seals today. With years of industry experience, we offer a range of high-quality O-rings for an array of industries. Contact us today to find out more.
You can have the most innovative and high-tech equipment, but it may be rendered useless if you don&#;t have the correct o-ring in place. The importance of choosing the suitable o-ring for any application should never be underestimated, as the appropriate size and material selection can be the difference between being up and running and failure.
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Selecting the appropriate material for your o-ring is very important and is your starting point when shopping for an o-ring. Common material selections include:
Nitrile (Buna-N): This is the most widely used o-ring material. It provides excellent resistance to petroleum products. It also offers an excellent compression set, tear, and abrasion resistance. It does not offer good resistance to ozone, sunlight, or weather unless it is specifically compounded to do so. Temperature range: -40° to +250°F.
Fluoroelastomer: This elastomer offers excellent mechanical and physical properties with good resistance to petroleum products, low compression set, and high-temperature resistance. Ideal for vacuum service and low gas permeability. Temperature range: -15° to +400°F.
Chloroprene: This elastomer is moderately resistant to petroleum and offers good ozone and weather resistance and good compression set. Excellent for sealing refrigeration fluids such as Freon®. Temperature range -65°- +250°F.
Silicone: This elastomer is ideal for weather and ozone resistance. It offers limited oil resistance and is not recommended for dynamic sealing applications due to poor tensile and tear strength and low abrasion resistance. Temperature range -80° - +450°F.
Highly Saturated Nitrile: This material offers better resistance to high temperature, superior physical properties, and improved chemical resistance over traditional nitrile compounds. It has improved resistance to ozone and sunlight and excellent resistance to compression set. Temperature range -40°- +325°F.
Ethylene Propylene (EPM, EPDM) (EPR): Excellent resistance to Skydrol® fluids used in commercial aircraft hydraulic systems. Recommended for hot water, steam, and phosphate ester-type hydraulic fluids. Resistance to some acids, alkalies, and ozone. Not recommended for petroleum fluids or diester lubricants. Temperature range: 65° - +300°F.
PTFE: This is a white thermoplastic fluoroethylene resin that offers heat resistance, low friction, dielectric strength, weatherability, toughness, no water absorption, and flexibility. Temperature range: -65°- +500°F.
Aflashttps://www.callapg.com/o-rings: This material offers high temperature, chemical, and electrical resistance properties. Recommended for use with oils, lubricants, hydraulic fluids, transmission, and power steering fluids, sour oil and gas, ozone, steam, acids, bases, alcohols, and other chemicals. Temperature range: +25° - +450°F.
As you can see, there is a wide variety of material options, each with its unique strengths and weaknesses. Choosing the right material is very important.
The temperature the o-ring will be exposed to is an important consideration when choosing the proper o-ring for your application. Temperatures can adversely affect the performance of even the best-made o-ring. If the operating temperature is too cold, the o-ring will lose its elasticity and become more brittle, making breakage likely. On the other end of the spectrum, if an o-ring gets too hot, it can become too flexible, and degradation will occur.
The importance of temperature is why you&#;ll always see temperature ranges on our products. The ability to see the temperature ranges will help you determine if the material is best suited to your specific application.
Operating pressure is also an important consideration when you are purchasing o-rings. Typically, in a static sealing setting, a standard 70 shore hardness will usually work well. Yet, once pressure approaches the + psi range, you may need to consider a shore hardness of 80-90.
Surface finish is also an important consideration. Generally speaking, the ideal surface finish for dynamic surfaces is 5 to 16 µ inch RMS. Smoother and rougher surfaces can result in increased friction and reduced life of the seal. Rougher finishes up to 64 µ inch RMS can be used in static applications.
When purchasing o-rings, you&#;ll also want to consider the stretch of the ring. For effective sealing, the inside diameter (ID) of the o-ring must be smaller than the groove where it will sit. This groove will require a slight stretch in the o-ring when it is in place, fitting snuggling into the groove. The stretch should be between 1-5%, with 2% being ideal in most applications.
As you can see, a lot goes into choosing the correct o-ring for your specific application! APG offers a great selection of standard o-rings, and we can offer vulcanized options if you need something other than standard sizes.
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