Oil and gas industry offered new-generation elastomer

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 89 KB
• Volume: 2010
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1350-4789
• DOI: 10.1016/s1350-4789(10)70517-1

✦ Synopsis

Oil and gas industry offered newgeneration elastomer

J ames Walker & Co has launched the first of its new-generation elastomers which have been created to provide improved sealing performance for applications in the oil and gas industry.

The company says that the launch follows a two-year programme of research, development and testing to provide real advances in performance and avoid compromises where some material properties are advanced at the expense of others -a common feature of new materials development.

With testing to establish the limits of the new polymer architecture still ongoing, FR68/90 has already exceeded Norsok compliance specifications, achieving a perfect test result not only for a 8.40-mm section at 100ºC but also a 5.33-mm section at an elevated temperature of 150ºC.

FR68/90 retains flexibility for ease of fitting and offers excellent sealability with compression set figures of just 8% after 24 hours at +175°C and 10% after 24 hours at +200°C. It has good amine and H 2 S resistance, and is able to operate over a temperature range of -30ºC to +200ºC. This extends the use of elastomeric materials to larger sections than was previously possible, with no loss of rapid gas decompression (RGD) resistance -a factor that can eliminate the need for complex and costly re-engineering of components to accept physically larger parts, such as spring-energised PTFE seals.