New anti-stick agent speeds gasket removal
- Book ID
- 104380697
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 172 KB
- Volume
- 2008
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1350-4789
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✦ Synopsis
New anti-stick agent speeds gasket removal G arlock Sealing Technologies has developed a proprietary, anti-stick agent that facilitates removal of gaskets from flanged joints.
Flange Free is a high-temperature, inorganic coating that Garlock is initially applying to its line of extreme-grade gaskets for critical service applications. All of the company's compressed sheet gasketing will be treated with the new material from early 2009. The coating is fused to the surface of the gasket material and does not contain chemicals that can cause the gaskets to crack or otherwise degrade. To assure proper gasket selection, product branding has been redesigned for high visibility and clarity even after individual gaskets have been cut from a sheet of material. 'In developing Flange Free, we conducted extensive research into what makes gaskets stick to flanges, and determined the binders in them act as viscoelastic materials that tend to flow at elevated temperatures and pressures,' explained Mike McNally, senior chemist in Garlock's research and development group. 'As the binders 'wet out' and make intimate contact with the metallic face of a flange, chemical adhesion, mechanical interlocking and other modes of adhesion come into play. Our anti-stick compound acts as a barrier that prevents the binders from 'wetting out', making the gaskets easier to remove.'