Choosing the optimal sealing solution for your working conditions delivers substantial cost savings, avoiding heavy expenditures brought by equipment shutdown, unplanned maintenance and leakage handling.

We supply an extensive range of metal seals engineered to withstand extreme operating conditions including high temperature, cryogenic environment, high pressure, vacuum, corrosive media and strong radiation.

Compared with rubber, composite, asbestos and other organic gaskets, metal seals will not degrade over service time from compression set, outgassing or seal blowout.

Furthermore, metal seals require far lower seating load than compressed-style gaskets, which allows designers to downsize flange strength and weight. This advantage is highly valuable for engineers pursuing compact and lightweight equipment design.

C-ring – provides a good combination of leak tightness and  springback. It is one of the most popular designs.

E-ring – offers the greatest amount of springback of all metal seals.

Metal O-ring – used for over 50 years and remains an economicalchoice for high-load, high pressure sealing.

Spring energized C-ring – is similar to the standard C-ring, but it  has an internal spring that produces much greater load for sealingagainst rough surfaces or when extreme leak tightness is required.

Wire ring – is a low cost, high load, crush type seal used with smooth mating surfaces and minimum relative movement.

Face seal / axial seal – keep in mind that metal face seals,which are ideal for static applications, are compressed by approximately 10% to 20% of their original free height to produce preferred sealing loads for optimized performance. Axial seals can be used in either static or semi-dynamic applications to seal against shafts and bores.

Due to the relative rigidity of metal seals in comparison to elastomeric and polymeric seals, the axial seals must be produced to tighter tolerances than face seal grooves. Face seals are generally preferred instead of axial seals due to their relative ease of gland manufacture, installation and seal performance.

High Load vs High Elasticity – high load metal seals are designed for extreme leak tightness. High elasticity seals provide resiliency or springback needed to maintain effective sealing during mating surface separation, such as with thermal cycling

Metal seals are produced with a wide variety of materials including high performance nickel alloys such as Alloy 718, AlloyX-750 and Waspaloy. Heat treated to increase seating load and springback, these high-strength metals improve fatigue and creep resistance. Metal O-rings and spring energized C-rings are also often manufactured from austenitic stainless steels.

Material selection is based on operating conditions such as temperature and pressure as well as performance issues such as seating load and springback. Other factors that should be considered in the selection process are corrosion resistance and hemical compatibility. Special materials are available to meet unusually severe operational requirements.

This is one of the most common questions asked by our customers. Generally, metal seals are not considered to be reusable and are replaced after each use. However, after considering a few important issues, the customer must ultimately be the one who answers the question for themselves.Issues to consider:

An E-ring provides nearly full elastic recovery after the compressive force is removed. E-rings usually are left unplated meaning there is no ductile outer surface which can be deformed into the hardened mating surface by compression. As a result, unplated E-rings and other low load seals more suited for reuse than other metal seals. O-rings and C-rings undergo mostly plastic deformation and therefore are usually discarded after one use

A rough surface will mean an equally rough impression intothe soft plated surface of the seal. Reinstalling the seal will result in a mismatch of the plated surfaces and mating hardware surfaces. The surface roughness impression made in the plating upon initial installation may act as leak paths upon subsequent installations. Smooth surfaces will minimize this effect and improve the chances for seal reuse.

When a seal is compressed it conforms to the waviness of the mating surfaces. When the seal is reinstalled it is likely that the waviness of the flange will not match with the waviness of theseal. This waviness mismatch may result in leak paths and non-uniform sealing forces on the circumference of the seal.Flat surfas will increase the possibility for seal reuse.

In some applications the time, effort and cost of assembling the equipment or machinery is very high. The money saved by reusing the seal is minimal compared to the cost for disassembly and reassembly if the seal needs to be replaced. Most customers are not willing to risk the cost of the labor replacing the seal to save on the price of a seal. However, if the consequences of a leaking seal are small then the customer will likely be willing to reuse the seal. After considering these issues the customer can decide whether or not to reuse the seal. Most customers will conclude that the seal should be replaced after each use.

Sulfide stress cracking (SSC) is a special corrosion type, a form of

stress corrosion cracking commonly found in oil field applications

where hydrogen sulfide (H2S) may be present. Susceptible alloys,

especially steels, react with hydrogen sulfide, forming metal

sulfides and elementary atomic hydrogen. The atomic hydrogen

diffuses into the metal matrix.

Stress corrosion cracking requires three simultaneous factors –

surface tensile stress, alloy and environment. The alteration or

elimination of any one of them can prevent this attack. Where

possible, the alteration of the environment or the choice of a

different alloy is the best solution. Elimination of stress is usually

attempted through heat treatment.

Choosing materials with a high nickel content can greatly improve

the resistance to sulfide stress cracking. Heat treating a high

nickel content material such as Alloy 718 to reduce the tensile

stress to meet the requirements of NACE MR0175 can greatly

reduce sulfide stress cracking corrosion.

NACE standard MR0175 does not give a recipe for heat treatment.

But it does state that a material such as Alloy 718 should not have

a hardness greater then 40HRC. Our -8 heat treatment removes

the tensile stress enough to meet the requirement, but still give

some strength. The -8 heat treatment will have a reduced seating

load of about 30% over our standard -6 solution anneal and age

hardened heat treatment