Gasket Sheet Goods

Sealsales.com is American Seal & Packing’s e-commerce site. Sheet gasketing material can be ordered on-line 24/7.

While most of our web sites provide marketing, technical specification and engineering information, Sealsales.com is specifically designed to allow our customers to order seal products on-line when it is convenient for them. The products we specialize in are all seal related and include:

Gasket Material

Before the gasket gets cut, the right gasket material must be selected. Choose the wrong material, and you can expect leakage, lost production, or down equipment. Problems can be avoided simply be asking the right questions first. The key things to consider is the Pressure / Temperature and making sure the product being sealed and the gasket material are compatible. Considering these 3 items is a very good start to a successful seal. But there is more to consider. Is the application dynamic or static. Having a motion aspect to consider complicates the issue and requires answers to other questions, such as speed and abrasiveness of the fluid/gas being sealed. Another aspect to consider is how much load is available to be placed on the gasket. Is it threaded, clamped or bolted shut?

Once all of the above has been considered, you should have at least 1 material available to choose from. The easier the application the more choices you will have. From the available options you should choose the material that will last the longest in service for the best price. Many manufacturing facilities will choose as few types of sheet gasket materials as possible to be in each area of the plant. The idea is to prevent a simple mistake from costing the company thousands. Gaskets are not just used in manufacturing facilities. For original equipment manufacturers (OEM's) we make recommendations for a huge range of products, including: cars, boats, solar, aerospace, appliance, submarine, we get a new application every week.

A quality gasket material is the least expensive insurance policy you will ever buy. If your buying it to go into a product you build, or into a factory that produces oil, gas, chemicals, milk or cheese the smartest thing you can do is buy a branded product from an established manufacturer. We offer, Durlon, Thermoseal, Garlock, FMI, Armstrong, Viton, Aflas, Latty and many other brands. We also offer our own AS&P brand for product manufactured to our specifications.

Gasket materials can be categorized into Rubber, Plastics, Rubber blends, rubber and fabric, rubber and fiber blends. Gasket materials can also be catabolized by the method of manufacture. While some sheet rubber and rubber and fiber combinations are made using a calendering process. Others are made in what is referred to as the "beater add" method, which essentially is a paper making machine. Like paper, it is made from a pulp. That pulp is a rubber and fiber or a cellulose blend. The most common name in beater add materials is Armstrong, Interface Solutions, and Lydall.

Gaskets

Often a gasket issue can be solved with a change of materials. When you have limited torque and a leaking gasket, converting to an EPTFE which seals with minimal load can solve most applications up to 500F. If your application is over 500F and does not have to be “clean” Flexible Graphite is generally the material of choice. If compressor pulsations are the issue, a wire inserted non-asbestos is often the answer. With the wide range of application problems we help people solve each day, we have to offer a wide range of materials from quality manufactures. Those solutions come from companies like FMI-SPA, Garlock, Klinger, Thermoseal, Dupont Viton, etc. Offering quality products that are built to last and are a good value is our focus.

We offer a range of rubber goods Red Rubber, Neoprene, EPDM, Nitrile (buna-n), SBR, etc, Non-Asbestos, PTFE, EPTFE, HS10 PTFE, Mica, etc.

Rather have your gaskets cut for you? No problem. Knowing what material you need is the most critical, but knowing the best way to produce your gasket from sheet will determine the tolerance of your gaskets, the cost of your gaskets, the quality of the cut, and the speed in which it’s produced. The most common methods of cutting a gasket includes:

Gasket Cutting Methods

Hand Cut

Methods include a ball peen hammer, hand gasket cutter, crank gasket cutter, motorized crank gasket cutter.

Die Cut

Clicker press cut, Kiss cut

Laser Cut Gaskets

CNC Oscillating Knife (Flash Cut)

Water Jet Gaskets

Each of the above have their advantages and disadvantage. Due to the amount of time required to produce them, hand cut gaskets are generally the most expensive. The fastest production method is still a clicker press die cutter but it requires tooling to be produced. Custom gaskets with closer tolerances are usually Laser, Water jet or CNC Oscillating knife. Which method is best comes down to the material you are cutting. PTFE cuts like butter on a laser, Mica is best on an oscillating knife, Metal inserted materials are best on a water jet. Flexible Graphite is cuts well on both an oscillating knife or water jet.

Controlling your gasket costs often means ordering them on sealsales.com. We produce gaskets using the best method for the material while consider how to get it to you fastest. Many ANSI,or API gaskets are on the shelf. For custom gaskets contact AS&P you will generally need a drawing or at the very least dimensions.

Low temperature Packings

Jute, Flax, Hemp - Generally for water service 150 F - 33 F and less.

Mid-Range Packings

Non-asbestos, PTFE (trade name Teflon) GFO, Kevlar, graphite coated synthetic, PTFE coated synthetic, Nomex, Novaloid, Linzing, Ameri-lon. Generally good for up to 450 F. The difference in this class is which are better for abrasives, or specific applications such as FDA (Food).

High Temperature Packing:

Carbon, Graphitic filament, Flexible Graphite, fiberglass, Silica, Mica - Flexible Graphite, Carbon and Graphite filament are all carbon based resulting in the same temperature rating of 850 F, however if there is no Oxygen present the carbon based packings can all reach 5000 + F. Many applications such as steam have some oxygen present placing the rating at about 1200 F. This is unique to carbon based products. There is no despute that flexible graphite packing is the most universal packing ( 0 -14 ph with High temp capabilities), it also seals the best. When refineries had to meet new stringent VOC leakage controls imposed by governments around the world, flexible graphite was the universal answer. We offer these braided packings here on sealsales.com If you need an engineered VOC solution for your valves or pumps, we offer a wide range of shapes and designs to accomplish your goals.

Injectable packing

is a great solution if you want to be able to fix you leaking pump without shutting it down. Injectable packing is combined with braided packing (which is used for anti-extrusion purposes), to fill your stuffing box with an injectable sealant specific to your application. The use of a high pressure (10,000 psi) Injection gun, injectable packing is pumped into the stuffing box through a button fitting (with a built in check valve). Injectable packing has been a great solution to keep production running and eliminating having to take a pump out of service because the braided packing or mechanical seal is leaking. From Clean PTFE to High Temp Flexible Graphite or abrasive resistant Kevlar we have a nice selection for most applications.

O-Rings

O-rings are a staple in the seal industry. With o-rings the biggest factors are Size and Material. We can offer recommendations based on your application for o-rings ! Where we start is understanding the size o-ring you need. O-rings have multiple standard sizes. In the United States that standard is the AS-568 standard developed by the U.S. Aerospace industry. It has been adopted by every industry in the U.S. The UK uses the BS (British Standard), Japan uses the JIS standard and Europe generally uses metric sized o-rings.

From a o-ring material stand point we offer Aflas, Neoprene, Nitrile, EPDM, Kalrez, Chemrez, Ameri-rez, PTFE, Silicone, Viton A, B (specialty grades available on request: F GAL-S GBL-S GF-S GLT-S GFLT-S ETP-S ) We also offer various durometers (50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 Duro are common)

AS 568 O-Ring Kits

The most common AS-568 American standard sizes are contained in this kit. 27/ 30 / 32 different sizes, a total of 364/ 371 / 396 pcs. Kits are availble in Buna-N (Nitrile), Flourolastomer (Viton®), and Silicone.

PTFE

Because PTFE is such a universal material many of the products we offer are PTFE, EPTFE or contain PTFE. PTFE has a 0-14 ph range is generally good for 500 F. The forms we offer include: o-rings, gasket material, gaskets, v-packing, PTFE lip seals, PTFE back-up rings, braided packing are all offered here on sealsales.com .

Because we have been selling solutions for reciprocating pumps since the 80's V-Packing has become a specialty niche we are particularly good at. Like any other seal, the material of construction is the key to longevity. Having a good stock, and the ability to supply large or small quantities quickly makes our v-packing ( vee packing, parachute packing or do you call it chevron packing? ) a strong segment of our business.

Mechanical Seals:

We have been marketing and distributing mechanical seals for pumps in1989. The style of seals include Single Springs Pump Seals, Compressor Seals, Multi-spring seal designs, metal bellows seals, mixer and agitators seals, single and double cartridge seals. We are distributors for AST, Delta, Utex, Sepco, Flow Serve, Latty, AS&P, Vulcan and have access to most major brands. No one mechanical seal manufacture make the best design in every type of seal. It’s important to have options for performance, value, and delivery reasons.

Mechanical Seal Repairs:

All seals eventually fail, but not all seals have to be tossed after failure. With the exception of “throw away” single spring seals, most seals are repairable at less than half the price of a new one. We repair not only our own seals, but also common name brands including: Flow Serve, A.W. Chesterton, Durametallic, Delta Seal, AST Seal, Utex Seals, Sepco, John Crane, Burgmann, Latty, AES, Roten, among others. For mechanical seal repairs contact American Seal & Packing

Mechanical Seal Recommendations:

We understand why some seals are better for specific applications and why some are not. Selecting a mechanical seal means understanding what the system is designed to accomplish and the demands that will be placed on the mechanical seal for that pump application. Beyond the seal design, it is critical to understand what materials should be used in the seal build. If your application is abrasive your seal faces better be able to tolerate it. If your pump, mixer or agitator suffers run out issues, the seal better be able to allow for that shaft movement without the seal taking a beating. When a pump is running fast, your seal supplier better understand what seal face combination will work, and what lubrication will be required to prevent frictional wear on the seal faces.

Mechanical Seals are not all we do. Not all pumps require mechanical seals. In some cases a braided packing can prove to be less expensive to run and can solve some problems a mechanical seals just can’t. While mechanical pump seals generally seal along the seal faces, braided packing seals along the shaft sleeve and the stuffing box walls. Mechanical seals contain those leak paths with static seals such as o-rings and gaskets.

Selecting the right Braided Compression Packing comes down to understanding the materials they are made from. Generally there are 3 categories of packing: