Your maintenance staff can avoid those too-frequent
searches for an 0-Ring of just the right size and material
to eliminate make-shift temporary "fixes" by
making vulcanized-bond 0-Rings in the plant.
A different technique for in-house emergency
fabrication of out-of-stock 0-Rings to make long-term
equipment repairs is now being adopted by plant
maintenance departments. Maintenance crews in the maritime
industry and HVAC business have been using the technique
for years.
Among the Viton O-Ring seals
made on-the-spot have been dynamic seals for reciprocating
shafts and rotating shafts, as well as static seals. The
permanence of the repair is attributable to use of an
O-Ring kit that combines a vulcanizing procedure and a
proprietary Viton -vulcanizing
spray. For O-Ring materials other than Viton ,
such as Neoprene, Buna N and E.P.R., the vulcanizing
material is a liquid rather than a spray. The results are
said to be comparable to the quality of a factory-made
ring.
A vulcanized bond is less likely to fail in service
because the homogeneous linked bond has greater pull
strength and greater chemical resistance than an instant
adhesive bond. At one New Jersey company, being able to
make a vulcanized O-Ring fast and on-the-spot avoided loss
of a $70,000 batch of product from a chemical reactor,
plus the cost of disposal of the unreclaimable product.
The ring was a 60-inch size with 1/4" cross section.
In- house fabrication speeds repairs when required O-Ring
sizes are not at hand. Delays for trips to mill-supply
houses are eliminated, as are problems of closed suppliers
over weekend and holidays.
Plant maintenance personnel familiar with adhesive-bond
kits find them valuable, but report that adhesive-bonded
rings are only a temporary repair that often must be
re-done with a permanent replacement. In contrast, they
call the newer vulcanized-bond ring a permanent repair.
They find a vulcanized-bond ring often can be made in less
than 20 minutes. In addition, those using the newer
vulcanizing kits have been able to reduce ordering
paperwork and O-Ring inventories.
The technique for making vulcanized-bond rings in-house
works for inch or metric rings, and rings cross sections
that are circular, flat, rectangular, chevron, etc.
A ring-vulcanizing kit contains everything necessary:
ring cord eight standard sizes (to 0.50"). Also in the tool-box kit are a work board, cutting blades, cord marking
pen and ink thermally insulated glove and cooling pan. On
the work board are a straight and bevel cutting die.
Temperature-controlled 110-volt heater and vulcanizing
die. A typical vulcanizing die handles eight cord sizes. The die is removable from the
heating element for substitution of another die for other
cord sizes or cross sections. (custom dies available in
metric sizes).
Some Viton cord is reprocessed
material, rather than virgin material. But the best ring
fabrication results are obtained with virgin material
Viton cord. Unlike reprocessed
Viton , the virgin material
typically has better chemical resistance, a higher maximum
operating temperature, and a better shape-retention
memory. Also it is easily bonded during vulcanization.
The O-Ring vulcanizing kit is available from Brooks
Tech Inc.
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